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THE  GOD  WHO  MADE  HIMSELF 


.V  STORY   FOR   CHILDREN    WHO  LIKE  MUSIC 


WITH   NOTES   (voii  gkown-ips) 


SYLLABI'S  of  A  PSYCHOLOGY  of  MUSIC 


1*Y 


George  Edwards 


I'l.'K    ! 


Kac'ii  r 
COMPLETK,    in     M»VANCKiOXK  DOLLAR. 


OSWALD    C.  <  Ol  I  MA  \ 
»A!V  Dl  U.fPOKMA 


OSWALD  C.  COFFMAN 

MUSIC   PUBLISHER 

SAN  DIEGO.  CALIFORNIA 


Dear  Friend: 

"The  purpose  of  my  experiment,"  Mr.  Edwards  tells  us, 
"is  to  present  to  everyone — children  as  well  as  grown-ups — a  bird's  eye 
view  of  the  essential  facts  of  musical  evolution.   Also  to  stimulate 
musicians  to  familiarize  themselves  with  the  standard  literature  not 
only  of  their  own  art,  but  that  of  sociology  and  psychology  generally, 
with  which  art  is  so  closely  associated.  "  The  synthetic  method  employ- 
ed was  suggested  by  Professor  Dewey's  article  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF 
SAVAGE  MIND,  ("Psychological  Review",  Vol.  IX,  No.  3.)  and  the  fairy- 
tale style,  by  the  compact  and  entertaining  manner  of  James  Stephens' 
CROCK  OF  GOLD. 


We  enclose  herewith  the  first  installment  of  the  "experiment",  of 
which  we  think  you  will  approve.   For  we  believe  you  are  among  those 
who  are  interested  in  improving  the  present  educational  methods,  by 
bringing  them  into  closer  relation  with  life.   Should  the  enclosed 
appeal  to  you,  your  subscription  to  the  whole  will  be  greatly  appre- 
ciated. 


Yours  very  truly, 

Oswald  C.  Coffman, 

Publisher. 


-3  a 

to    ssoqiJjq    sriT*- 


THE  GOD  WHO  MADE  HIMSELF 


L    THE  GOD  WHO  DID  NOT  EXIST 
II.    HOW  THE  GOD  WAS  BORN 

III.  HIS  RELATIVES 

IV.  HOW  HE  CLOTHED  HIMSELF 
V.    HOW  HE  LEARNED  TO  WRITE 

VI.    HOW  THE  GOD  AMUSED  HIMSELF 
VII.    ADOLESCENCE 
VIII.    MARRIAGE 

IX.    DIVORCE 

X.    THE  GOD'S  PHILOSOPHY 

XI.    THE  SOCIAL  REVOLUTIONIST 


To  be  issued  serially.     Cover,  10  cents.     Each  part,  10  cents. 
Subscription  complete,  in  advance,  one  dollar. 


PUBLISHED   BY 

OSWALD   C.  COFFMAN. 

SAN   DIEGO.    CALIFORNIA. 


THE    GOD    WHO    MADE    HIMSELF 

BY 

George  Edwards 


1 

THE  GOD  WHO  DID  NOT  EXIST 


1.  There  was  once  a  god  who  did  not  exist.  By  this  I  mean  that  all  his  parts  were  so  widely 
scattered  that  no  one  knew  (much  less  himself)  that  they  belonged  together. 

2.  Now  there  were  no  people  on  the  earth  in  those  days— only  animals  and  plants.  For  before 
there  can  be  people  there  must  be  a  god  to  make  them.  Every  child  knows  this  whose  parents  have  sent 
him  to  Sunday  School.  But  how  a  god  could  make  himself,  or,  "Who  began  the  beginner?"  is  a  question 
all  sensible  children  have  frequently  asked.  And,  so  far  as  I  know,  no  one  before  has  ever  been  able  to 
answer  them. 

3.  As  I  have  said,  the  god  did  not  yet  exist  for  the  reason  that  all  his  parts  were  so  widely 
scattered.  But  all  the  parts  that  were  even  then  in  existence  were  not  sufficient  to  make  a  grown-up  god. 
And  so  the  difficulty  which  faced  him  was  two-fold : 

a.  How  he  should  come  together  and  be  at  least  a  baby  god. 

b.  What  to  do  in  order  to  become  a  grown-up. 

4.  Of  course  he  could  not  take  the  second  step  until  he  had  accomplished  the  first,  and  he  could 
not  take  the  first  for  the  reason  that  he  did  not  exist ;  and  so  he  could  do  nothing  to  make  himself  a  god  at 
all  until  some  fortunate  accident  should  bring  together  all  his  scattered  parts  in  such  a  way  that  anyone 
could  see  (including  himself)  that  here  at  least  were  the  makings  of  a  god. 

5.  What  made  his  task  especially  difficult  was  that  all  the  bones  which  were  to  make  up  his 
skeleton  were  not  such  as  you  could  see  or  touch,  but  only  hear.  In  the  tread  of  running  animals  were 
some  of  his  bones:  tahtay,  tahtay,  tahtay,  etc.;  in  the  peaceful  breathing  of  their  babies,  there  were 
others :  taa-aah,  taa-aah,  etc.;  but  in  the  beating  of  their  hearts  was  the  true  beginning  of  his  life :  taah, 
taah,  taah,  etc.  Beating,  beating,  beating, — that  is  what  his  heart  would  be  doing  always— when  he 
should  live.    By  the  beating  of  his  heart  would  all  his  other  actions  be  determined. 

6.  But  plain  as  all  these  were,  no  one  knew — not  even  the  god  himself  (for  he  did  not  exist) 
— that  they  were  bones. 

7.  Neither  was  his  flesh  a  thing  for  any  sense  but  hearing.  For  its  substance  lay  in  the  songs 
oLthe  birds,  in  the  hum  of  the  bees,  and  in  the  roar  of  the  cataracts.  (Also  in  the  moaning  of  the  wind 
among  the  trees,  as  it  rose  and  fell  in  sliding  scales,  but  this  he  did  not  notice  until  he  was  quite  grown  up.) 

8.  Wherever  a  waterfall  thundered  many  tones  were  present,  and  these  all  blended  together 
harmoniously  and  formed  a  chord :  doh,  me,  soh.  If  the  stream  was  very  large  the  chord  produced  by 
the  waterfall  sounded  low.    If  very  small  the  chord  sounded  higher. 

9.  Likewise,  wherever  there  was  a  very  shrill  sound,  like  the  whistling  of  the  wind  in  a  high 
gale,  many  lower  tones  were  present  beside  the  main  one,  and  these  too,  blending  together,  formed  a  chord 
sometimes  high  and  sometimes  lower :  doh,  may,  soh. 

10.  But  while  the  deep  tones  of  the  waterfalls  sounded  grand  and  hearty,  the  shrill  tone 
always  produced  a  sad  and  weird  effect. 

Copyright.  1916,  by  George  Edwards. 


"Beneath  the  swaying  pine-tree, 

That  the  fitful  wind  goes  through, 
I  gaze  on  the  widening  landscape, 
That  fades  in  far-off  blue. 

And  like  low  music  playing 
Above  in  the  organ  loft, 
The  wind  in  the  pine-tree  moving 
Makes  music  strange  and  soft. 


For  the  trees  have  all  their  voices 
Of  light  or  earnest  tone; 

The  aspen — elfin  laughter, 
The  oak — a  Titan's  moan." 
—F.  W.  Bourdillon. 


11.  Now  the  birds  and  insects  had  lived  all  their  lives  among  the  moaning  trees,  and  beside 
the  waterfalls.  So  whenever  they  sang,  they  used  for  the  most  part  the  tones  of  the  chord  belonging  to 
some  waterfall.  Even  the  spiders  in  calling  to  their  mates  adopted  the  mournful  tones  of  the  chord  be- 
longing to  a  shrill  wind.  Thus  all  the  tunes  they  sang  were  those  to  which  you  could  apply  the  sylla- 
bles doh,me,  soh,  or  doh,  may,  soh. 

12.  These  were  the  god's  flesh  and  blood.  And  these  were  the  materials  of  his  heart.  But  as 
yet  it  did  not  beat ;  it  only  slept. 

13.  There  were  other  things,  too,  which  went  to  make  up  the  baby  god,  but  always  were  they 
sensible  to  the  ear  alone,  never  to  the  eye  or  any  other  organ.  Strength  and  weakness  were  to  qualify 
his  being,  as  sometimes  a  wind  is  loud,  sometimes  soft. 

14.  And  the  colors  which  he  would  take  on  were  already  in  existence.  For  instance,  no  one 
ever  mistook  the  sound  of  running  brooks  for  bees,  nor  the  whirr  of  humming  birds  for  purring  cats — 
however  they  might  be  alike  in  strength  and  pitch. 

15.  These,  then,  were  the  parts  which  were  to  form  the  god.  But  how  he  should  bring  them 
together  he  did  not  know.  Indeed,  it  is  probable  he  did  not  want  them  all  to  come  together,  for  at  the 
time  of  which  I  write,  and  for  a  long  time  afterwards,  in  fact,  until  a  certain  very  fortunate  accident 
occurred  of  which  I  mean  to  tell  you,  he  did  not  even  exist. 


NOTES. 

(FOR  GROWN  UPS.) 
SYLLABUS    OF   A    PSYCHOLOGY    OF    MUSIC. 


The  Psychology  of  Music  has  not  as  yet  been  written. 

Here  and  there,  it  is  true,  in  the  works  of  all  the  great  writers  on  music  are  valuable  hints,  convincing  examples,  of  the  power 
of  music  over  the  emotions,  and  the  influence  of  human  emotion  upon  the  form  of  music.  But  so  far  has  appeared  no  systematic 
attempt  to  organize  these  subtle  and  scattered  fragments  into  a  consistent  whole,  such  as  may  be  utilized  by  students  and  teachers 
of  music  to  explain  their  feelings  about  the  art  to  which  they  have  devoted  their  lives. 

Perhaps  it  should  not  be  written,  but  only  suggested,  leaving  room  for  people's  creative  imagination  and  original  observation 
to  fill  up  the  outline,  or  vary  it,  to  suit  themselves. 

The  most  recent  development  in  psychology  is  fortunately  a  development  in  the  direction  of  simplicity.  It  is  called  the 
"behavior  method"  and  is  based  on  observation  rather  than  upon  introspection.  For  introspection  (the  method  peculiar  to  previous 
systems)  changes  the  nature  of  the  very  things  to  be  observed  (mental  processes).  It  is  a  common  fact  that  people  as  a  rule  are 
less  capable  of  naming  and  judging  their  own  motives  than  are  others  who  observe  them.  The  behavior  method  of  psychology  is 
based  on  the  following  propositions : 

a.  Action  is  the  primary  category  of  all  life.  And  since  the  beginnings  of  life  are  groupal,  all  that  has  been  done  in  Social 
Psychology  is  helpful  at  this  point. 

b.  What  has  been  called  feeling  (pleasure-pain  phenomena)  is  inhibited,  snubbed,  thwarted  action.     Feeling  is  attitude. 

c.  Thot  is  action  transformed  from  the  instinctive  to  the  directive  or  selective  field.  (See  Professor  John  Dewey's  article  on 
The  Reflex  Arc  Concept  in  "The  Psychological  Review",  Vol.  Ill,  No.  4.)  His  theory  is,  briefly:  that  action  is  not  simply  reacticn  to 
stimulus,  but  stimuli  are  in  some  measure  invariably  selected.     In  other  words,  we  see  only  when  we  look ;  we  hear  only  when  we  listen. 

The  syllabus  follows  as  nearly  as  possible  the  method  of  Prof.  H.  Heath  Bawden's  (author  The  Principles  of  Pragmatism, 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.)  course  in  Psychology  held  at  San  Ysidro,  California,  April  1914  to  June  1915.  And  the  author  takes  the 
present  opportunity  of  acknowledging  the  value  of  the  former's  various  courses  in  his  own  development. 

The  salient  facts  of  a  psychology  of  music  are  included  in  the  little  story  to  which  the  following  notes  are  a  sort  of  commen- 
tary. Musical  examples  have  been  purposely  omitted  owing  to  the  expense  of  engraving  musical  texts.  In  the  notes,  however, 
standard  references  are  given  for  teaching  material.  Should  sufficient  demand  arise  from  publishing  the  above,  a  series  of  sheets 
will  be  issued  gathering  together  in  convenient  order  specific  materials  for  teaching  purposes,  complementing  and  corresponding  to 
the  various  installments  of  the  story. 

5.*  For  an  explanation  of  the  time-names  of  M.  Aimee  Paris,  see  The  Rythmic  Cradus,  Grade  1,  p.  13.  (Bosworth  &  Co.) 
These  are  equal  in  importance  in  the  teaching  of  time,  to  the  Tonic  Sol-fa  syllables  in  the  teaching  of  pitch.  And  just  as  the 
latter  develop  the  unconscious  feeling  for  relative  pitch  by  associating  all  other  tones  with  "doh",  so  do  the  time-names  emphasize 
the  universal  time-standard  in  music, — the  beat.  The  conventional  method  of  printing  music  unfortunately  gives  a  confused  and 
imperfect  record  of  both.  See  Analysis  of  the  Evolution  of  Musical  Form,  by  Margaret  H.  Glyn,  (Bosworth  &  Co.)  pp.  16  and  28. 
Bach  is  said  to  have  adopted  the  beating  of  his  heart  for  the  standard  of  speed,  to  be  represented  by  quarter-notes.  Some 
such  fact  is  probably  the  origin  of  the  speed-term  "beat."  But  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  "speed"  of  a  movement  refers  not 
to  the  speed  of  notes,  but  to  the  speed  of  the  beats. 

7.  "Pitch-waves"  in  music,  imaging  the  rise  and  fall  of  emotion,  tho  suggested  by  the  Greek,  Aristoxenus,  in  his  theory  of 
Harmony,  were  first  recognized  as  a  constant  factor  of  musical  effect  by  M.  H.  Glyn.    See  The  Rythmic  Conception  of  Music,  Ch.  VII. 

8,  9.  For  an  explanation  of  the  harmonic  major  and  minor  "scales  of  nature,"  see  Riemann's  Harmony  Simplified,  pp.  2-3 ; 
or  Vincent  d'Indy :  Cours  de  Composition  Musicale,  pp.  94-101. 

In  this  connection  children  should  be  drilled  in  exercises  based  on  the  chords  "doh,  me,  soh,"  and  "doh,  may,  soh,"  in  various 
keys.  It  is  only  fair  to  children  that  early  training  in  position,  tone-quality,  and  speed,  should  be  based  on  these  simple  three-toned 
formulae  rather  than  on  the  highly  complicated  diatonic  scales. 

11.      For  specific  examples  of  bird-songs   see  Gardiner's  Music  of  Nature,  pp.  222  232  ;  and  for  the  melodic  consonance  of 
insects,  p.  247.   These  examples  are  suggested  not  merely  as  curiosities,  but  for  practical  use  as  tiny  "pieces"  for  the  children  to  play 
as  soon  as  they  have  learned  the  chords  "sung  by  the  waterfalls  and  by  the  high  winds". 
♦Figures  refer  to  corresponding  paragraph  numbers  in  the  preceding  story. 


THE  GOD  WHO  MADE  HIMSELF 

I. 

THE  GOD  WHO  DID  NOT  EXIST 

II. 

HOW  THE  GOD  WAS  BORN 

III. 

HIS  RELATIVES 

IV. 

HOW  HE  CLOTHED  HIMSELF 

V. 

HOW  HE  LEARNED  TO  WRITE 

VI. 

HOW  THE  GOD  AMUSED  HIMSELF 

VII. 

ADOLESCENCE 

VIII. 

MARRIAGE 

IX. 

DIVORCE 

X. 

THE  GOD'S  PHILOSOPHY 

XL 

Tob 

THE  SOCIAL  REVOLUTIONIST 

I  issued  serially.     Cover,  10  cents.     Each  part,  10  cents. 

Subscription  complete,  in  advance,  one  dollar. 

PUBLISHED    BY 

OSWALD  C.  COFFMAN, 

SAN  DIEGO.  CALIFORNIA. 

THE  GOD  WHO   MADE   HIMSELF 

BY 

George  Edwards 


II. 

HOW  THE  GOD  WAS  BORN. 


16.  Among  the  many  animals  who  lived  with  the  birds  in  the  depths  of  the  forest,  and  beside 
the  waterfalls,  were  some  who  had  come  to  stand  upright—on  their  "behime  legs",  as  Uncle  Remus  says. 
And  once  their  front  legs  were  free  from  the  ground  they  ceased  to  use  them  for  walking.  By  grasping 
sticks  and  branches,  gradually  their  thumbs  became  separated  from  their  other  fingers— and  all  at  once 
they  found  that  they  had  hands!  These  gave  them  an  advantage  over  all  the  other  animals,  for  in  their 
upright  position  they  could  see  further  than  those  who  were  still  on  all  fours.  And  whenever  they  wish- 
ed to  deprive  their  neighbors  of  something  the  latter  were  using  (or  whenever  the  others  would  take  some- 
thing they  were  not  using),  with  their  hands  they  grasped  great  sticks  to  beat  them  with,  or  picked  up 
cocoanuts  and  boulders  to  throw  at  them.  Tho,  of  course,  among  themselves  they  always  shared  every- 
thing, and  made  up  for  the  weakness  of  some  by  giving  them  every  possible  assistance. 

17.  One  day  these  strange  new  creatures  (who  were  standing  upright)  found  that  the  sticks 
lay  very  comfortably  within  their  hands.  And  because  it  gave  them  pleasure,  they  began  rubbing  them 
together  in  a  rythmical  manner,  similar  to  the  movement  of  their  legs  in  walking,  and  to  the  beating  of 
their  hearts.  Now  it  happened  that  the  sticks  were  very  dry  (for  it  was  before  the  rainy  season),  and 
suddenly  a  bright  light  flew  off  and  danced  a  moment  in  the  air.  This  they  thot  was  very  pretty,  tho  at 
first  they  were  a  little  frightened  at  it, (for  they  were  always  afraid  of  everything);  and  they  kept  up  the 
rubbing  of  the  sticks  until  at  last  one  of  the  little  sparks  fell  amidst  some  dry  grass  and  set  it  afire.  Im- 
mediately the  fire  spread,  until  the  animals  were  forced  to  run  for  their  lives.  And  when  they  returned 
in  the  trail  of  the  conflagration,  they  found  many  dead  animals,  of  kinds  which  could  not  run  so  fast  as 
they;  whose  flesh  tasted  particularly  pleasant  when  they  ate  of  it,  for  it  had  been  thoroly  cooked.  There- 
after the  more  courageous  of  them  continued  to  invoke  the  fire  whenever  they  desired  to  eat  of  the  cook- 
ed flesh  of  their  unfortunate  neighbors. 

18.  Before  the  fire  would  come,  however,  they  were  forced  to  rub  the  sticks  a  very  long  time ; 
and  it  was  much  easier  and  pleasanter  to  rub  them  regularly,  in  the  manner  in  which  they  always  walked 
and  ran.  Very  soon  they  began  making  noises  with  their  mouths  to  accompany  the  rythmic  movement 
of  the  sticks,  calling  on  the  fire  to  come  and  terrify  them.  For,  (tho  they  were  always  afraid  of  every- 
thing) they  found  their  boldness  rather  a  pleasant  sensation;  much  as  children  do  when  playing  "  Booh ! " 
in  and  out  of  a  dark  room.  And  always  the  fire  would  come,  tho  sometimes  not  so  quickly  as  at  others. 
And  because  the  animals  had  been  neighbors  to  the  birds,  and  had  always  lived  beside  the  waterfalls  and 
in  the  depths  of  the  forest,  their  cries  also  resolved  themselves  into  songs  to  which  you  could  apply  the 
syllables  doh,  me,  soh,  or  doh,  may,  soh. 

19.  Thus  the  god  was  born,  for  in  the  songs  that  had  called  forth  the  fire,  for  the  first  time 
were  his  bones,  his  flesh  and  his  blood,  his  strength,  and  his  color  all  together  in  one  whole. 

20.  Tho  the  animals  had  brot  the  god  to  life,  they  did  not  know  what  they  had  done ;  and  tho 
the  god  had  made  them  into  people,  he  did  not  know  that  either.   And  so  they  lived  together  day  by  day, 

Copyright.  1916,  by  George  Edwards, 


OSWALD   C.  COFFMAN 

MUSIC    PUBLISHER 

SAN   DIEGO,    CALIFORNIA 


Dear  Friend: 

There  was  once  an  Elderly  Woman  to  whom  her  Friends 
presented  a  Bible  with  Commentaries.  When  asked  how  she  liked  the 
Gift,  the  Woman  answered:  "I  like  the  Bible  very  much,  and  I  under- 
stand it  thoroly  ;  but  I  can  make  neither  head  nor  tail  of  the  Commen- 
taries1' . 

There  were  many  encouraging  responses  to  the  first  install- 
ment of  "The  God  Who  Made  Himself"  ;  but  also  there  were  many  like  that 
of  the  Elderly  Woman,  and  on  that  account  we  have  decided  to  send  out 
the  second  installment,  as  before,  to  all  those  who  (we  have  reason 
to  believe)  are  interested  in  the  problem  of  music  in  its  relation  to 
the  other  activities  of  life.  The  only  complexity  in  the  "Notes"  was 
contained  in  the  short  introduction,  the  meaning  of  which  it  is  the 
object  of  the  work  to  elucidate.  Perhaps  (like  prefaces,  which  as 
Shaw  says  "are  always  written  last"  ,  )  the  fundamental  argument  should 
have  been  given  at  the  end.  To  all  those  who  did  not  understand  it, 
Mr.  Edwards  suggests  to  wait  until  the  facts  are  all  described,  or  else 
to  forget  it  altogether,  just  as  the  Elderly  Woman  probably  did  with 
the  Commentaries. 

Meanwhile,  if  the  story  (which  is  the  main  thing),  pleases 
you,  your  subscription  to  the  series  will  greatly  encourage  the  pub- 
lishers in  this  experiment  in  an  unusual  field. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Oswald  C.  Coffman, 

Publisher. 


neither  knowing  how  the  other  came  to  be  (nor  thinking  about  it,  for  that  matter). 

21.  And  yet  they  always  depended  upon  each  other.  For  instance,  when  the  animal-people 
went  out  to  fight  they  called  him  forth  on  conch  shells  (like  bugles,  which  always  sing  songs  composed 
of  doh,  me,  soh).  And  in  order  to  secure  unity  of  action  (as  in  marching,  shooting  arrows,  and  throwing 
missies),  they  would  call  him  forth  in  songs.  They  also  used  the  songs  to  stimulate  their  pride  (for  in  or- 
der to  excell  in  war  it  is  necessary  to  believe  that  your  people  are  "  better "  than  other  people — that  is 
what  is  meant  by  patriotism);  also,  to  render  themselves  as  cruel  as  possible ;  (for  when  a  mob  is  excited 
it  is  capable  of  deeds  from  which  in  ordinary  times  the  natural  sympathies  would  deter  them.)  But 
most  of  all  they  called  him  forth  in  order  to  keep  up  their  courage  (for  they  were  always  afraid  of  everything). 

22.  On  all  these  occasions  the  god  responded.  He  sometimes  did  not  like  to  do  this,  for  he 
loved  the  animal-people,  and  did  not  wish  to  help  them  do  each  other  harm.  But  tho  he  had  made  them 
into  people,  they  had  made  him  also ;  and  so  he  was  never  able  to  refuse. 

23.  Some  people  say  that  it  was  in  the  wars  the  god  was  born,  and  no  one  knows  but  what 
they  may  be  saying  truth. 

24.  When  the  animal-people  had  dwelt  with  the  god  a  sufficient  length  of  time,  more  and  more 
of  their  attention  was  given  to  the  making  of  comfortable  things.  At  these  times  the  god  was  very  happy, 
and  loved  to  be  with  them.  For  instance,  many  months  were  required  to  hollow  out  a  canoe.  Because 
they  had  no  metal  tools  they  were  compelled  to  wear  away  the  wood  with  sharp  stones.  Now  in  order  to 
keep  together  (for  they  mostly  did  their  work  in  groups,  as  children  do  in  school) ;  and,  because  they  had 
found  in  calling  forth  the  fire  that  any  long  continued  action  always  falls  into  the  regular  movement  of 
walking,  running,  and  the  beating  of  their  hearts,  they  began  to  sing  (songs  mostly  based  on  doh,  me,  soh 
—tho  occasionally  ray  and  lah  were  added).  This  was  in  order  to  relieve  the  monotony  of  the  work,  and 
to  overcome  their  natural  laziness.  (For  just  as  they  were  always  afraid  of  everything,  so  were  they  always 
tired    except  in  play.    All  children  understand  that). 

25.  Indeed,  some  people  say  industry  was  the  birthplace  of  the  god.  And  no  one  knows  but 
that  they  may  be  right. 

26.  As  the  animals  gained  one  by  one  these  human  characteristics  they  lived  yet  more  and 
more  with  the  god  whom  they  had  made  (and  who  had  made  them).  When  the  young  men  and  young 
women  wished  to  show  their  liking  for  one  another,  the  god  delighted  in  acting  as  the  go-between,  and 
came  forth  in  lovely  songs  in  which  they  expressed  their  love  and  their  desire  to  be  loved.  And  every 
time  the  songs  were  sung  the  god  lived  yet  more  fully,  and  grew  in  stature,  flesh,  strength,  and  color. 
As  he  grew,  he  in  turn  was  able  to  inspire  yet  more  of  love  within  their  breasts. 

27.  Some  there  are  who  say  the  god  had  his  birthplace  in  the  people's  love.  Certain  it  is  that 
this  is  one  of  the  ways  in  which  he  got  his  growth.  Others  say  he  was  not  born  alone,  but  in  company 
with  various  brothers,  sisters,  cousins,  friends.  Of  these  I  shall  immediately  tell ;  and  every  child  can 
form  his  own  opinion. 


NOTES. 

(FOR  GROWN  UPS.) 


SYLLABUS    OF    A    PSYCHOLOGY    OF    MUSIC. 


16.*  For  a  description  of  loyalty  within  the  groups  (even  among  the  simplest  animals) — a  principle  which  everywhere 
balances  Darwin's  theory  of  "survival  of  the  fittest",  see  Kropotkin's  Mutual  Aid  Among  Men  And  Animals.  (London,  William 
Heinemann,  1910). 

17.  Jack  London's  Before  Adam  is  one  of  the  most  readable  and  graphic  descriptions  of  the  prevailing  "fear  psychology" 
of  primitive  men.    It  also  contains  a  good  account  of  the  use  of  fire  as  the  primary  rung  in  the  ladder  of  human  evolution. 

18.  A  fanciful  and  entertaining  essay  on  the  first  clumsy  discoveries  of  roast  meat  is  Lamb's  A  Dissertation  on  Roast  Pig 
in  the  Essays  of  Elia. 

The  association  of  magic  with  primitive  activities  is  entertainingly  told  for  children  in  Dopp's  The  Cave  Men,  and  others 
of  the  same  series. 

19.  For  the  most  primitive  songs,  confined  to  the  tonic  major  and  minor  chords,  see  Analysis  Of  The  Evolution  Of  Musi- 
cal Form  by  M.  H.  Glyn.  Apendix  A. 

20.  For  the  psychology  of  the  "Self"  and  the  development  of  the  "I"  see  Cooley's  Human  Nature  And  The  Social  Order, 
Chaps.  V.  and  VI.  (Scribner's  1912). 

21.  In  this  connection  the  actual  bugle  calls  should  be  taught.  The  commonest  bugle  calls  may  be  found  in  Nelson's 
Encyclopedia,  Vol.  II.  pp.  368  9. 

On  concerted  action  see  Walleschek:  Primitive  Music,  p.  42,  (music  of  the  Ngeri),    Also  Him :  Origins  of  Art,  Chap.  XIX. 

Courage:  Walleschek,  p.  205,  (the  women  of  Madagascar). 
Also  Hirn. 

Cruelty :  Hirn,  Chap.  XIX. 

Pride :  Hirn,  Chap.  XIX. 

Signals,  and  the  origin  of  leit  motives :  Wallaschek,  p.  100;  Combarieux:  Music:  Its  Laws  And  Evolution,  p.  179,  (music 
of  the  Hebrews). 

Wallaschek  concludes  that  music  owes  to  warfare  "the  first  rythmical  beating  of  time"  and  "the  first  fixed  melodies"  as 
well  as  "the  first  orchestra,  which  was  a  band". 

23.  Ruskin :  Crown  Of  Wild  Olive,  Lecture  III :  War. 

24.  Combarieux :  Music :  Its  Laws  And  Evolution,  p.  182 ;  Spencer :  Principles  Of  Sociology ;  Bucher :  Arbeit  Und  Rhythmus; 
Hirn:  Origins  Of  Art,  p.  255;    Verneuil:  L'art  Musicale  En  Senegale;  Wallaschek:  Primitive  Music,  p.  22.  (Music  In  Burma). 

27.    Darwin  ;  The  Descent  Of  Man,  (Second  Edition),  Chap.  XIII. 

♦Figures  refer  to  corresponding  paragraph  numbers  in  the  preceding  story. 


THE  GOD  WHO  MADE  HIMSELF 


I.    THE  GOD  WHO  DID  NOT  EXIST 

II.  HOW  THE  GOD  WAS  BORN 

III.  HIS  RELATIVES 

IV.  HOW  HE  CLOTHED  HIMSELF 

V.  HOW  HE  LEARNED  TO  WRITE 

VI.  HOW  THE  GOD  AMUSED  HIMSELF 
VII.    ADOLESCENCE 

VIII.    MARRIAGE 

IX.  DIVORCE 

X.  THE  GOD'S  PHILOSOPHY 

XI.  THE  SOCIAL  REVOLUTIONIST 


To  be  issued  serially.    Cover,  10  cents.     Each  part,  10  cents. 
Subscription  complete,  in  advance,  one  dollar. 


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10 


THE    GOD   WHO    MADE    HIMSELF 

BY 

George  Edwards 


III. 

HIS  RELATIVES. 


28.  By  all  the  means  I  have  just  described  the  god  was  gaining  in  flesh,  for  it  now  consisted 
not  only  of  doh,  me,  soh,  and  doh,  may,  soh,  with  the  addition  of  ray  and  lah ;  but  in  due  course  fah  and 
te  were  added.  Meanwhile,  of  course,  his  bones  must  keep  pace  with  his  growing  flesh,  and  the  events 
which  I  ami  about  to  describe  were  mainly  connected  with  the  development  of  his  skeleton. 

29.  In  order  to  understand  that,  however,  it  is  necessary  to  know  that  he  was  not  the  only 
god  in  the  world.  Several  other  gods  had  come  into  existence  at  the  same  time  as  he,  and  two  of  them, 
especially,  were  quite  closely  related  to  him ;  if  not  quite  brother  and  sister,  at  least  own  cousins. 

30.  One  of  these— a  boy— was  always  talking.  And  whenever  the  newly  made  people  wished 
particularly  to  remember  anything  they  had  learned,  or  whenever  they  desired  to  communicate  with 
other  groups  of  animal-people,  they  frequently  joined  the  two  gods  together,  and  put  the  words  into  a  song. 
This  was  in  order  to  be  quite  certain  that  the  boy  would  repeat  the  message  exactly  as  they  gave  it  to  him. 
Helping  the  boy  thus  to  remember  was  a  service  our  god  (for  as  yet  he  had  no  name)  was  always  delight- 
ed to  perform. 

31.  The  other  one — a  girl — was  forever  dancing.  The  people  loved  her  dearly;  tho  they  were 
never  quite  satisfied  to  play  with  her  alone,  but  always  joined  her  with  the  other  god— our  god  (the  one 
who  sang). 

32.  From  these  exercises  he  gained  in  energy ;  his  bones  grew  strong  and  supple ;  his  flesh 
became  firm  and  muscular.  After  a  time  he  was  able  in  his  songs  to  copy  all  his  sister's  steps,  so  that 
merely  to  hear  him  singing  the  newly  made  people  could  imagine  they  saw  her  dancing. 

33.  Thus  his  bones,  which  for  a  long  time  had  been  all  the  same  length,  like  the  breaths  of  a 
sleeping  baby,  or  the  beats  of  its  little  heart,  took  on  a  great  variety  of  forms.  The  words  of  the  god 
who  talked  were  responsible  for  some  of  these  variations,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  songs  of  the  people  who 
are  being  made  in  our  day. 

34.  But  more  potent  than  they  were  the  steps  of  her  who  danced.  Certain  bones  of  which 
the  god  was  made  grew  out  of  the  figures  of  her  dances,  and  became  fixed  in  his  form ;  until  today  merely 
by  examining  a  bone,  those  who  know  the  god  best,  and  love  him  most,  can  tell  whether  it  was  formed 
by  his  sister's  waltzing,  marching,  or  dancing  the  Gavotte,  Musette,  or  Tarantelle ;  the  Sarabande,  Ma- 
zurka, Minuet,  or  Polonaise. 

35.  And  while  no  one  knew  for  a  long  time— in  fact  it  is  a  secret  which,  so  far  as  I  know,  has 
never  been  told  before— so  many  of  his  bones  were  shaped  by  the  figures  of  her  various  dances  that  sel- 
dom afterward  did  he  grow  any  bones  which  could  not  be  traced  to  his  sister's  influence. 

36.  But  tho  the  bones,  as  I  have  shown,  took  on  considerable  variety,  they  had  come  into  ex- 
istence in  the  form  of  heart-beats.  So  forever  afterward  all  the  long  and  short  bones,  all  the  large  and 
small  bones,  and  all  the  straight  and  crooked  bones,  were  such  only  as  could  be  measured  by  the  original 
even  ones — the  ones  made  out  of  heart-beats. 

Copyright,  1916,  by  George  Edwards, 


11 

37.  When  the  animal-people  first  began  to  build  their  homes,  yet  another  god  was  born  to  help 
them  do  the  work.  And  when  they  decorated  the  walls,  still  another.  But  with  these  our  god  was  not 
so  intimate,  for  he  loved  at  first  only  to  be  out-of-doors,  and  always  felt  constrained  When  cooped  up  in 
the  house. 

38.  Much  later  another  god,  who  loved  to  carve  in  wood  and  stone,  taught  the  people  how  to 
make  altars  to  the  god  who  sang.  And  when  the  colors  which  he  should  wear  (of  which  I  mean  later  to 
tell  you)  came  into  existence,  the  god  who  carved  would  decorate  the  instruments  of  color  with  flowers 
and  scrolls  similar  to  those  which  appear  on  violins,  pianos,  harps  and  organs  to  this  day. 

39.  Some  people  say  the  gods  were  five  in  all ;  others  tell  us  there  were  nine.  The  simple  fact 
is,  wherever  the  animal-people  created  anything  which  had  not  been  in  the  world  before,  or  even  merely 
transformed  things  that  already  existed  into  others  more  suitable  to  their  human  needs,  there  a  god  was  born. 

40.  Every  year  the  animal-people  held  festivals.  They  came  together  from  far  and  near,  to 
dance  and  sing,  and  contend  against  one  another  in  games.  Prizes  were  offered  for  the  best  songs,  the 
greatest  poems,  the  noblest  instruments.  At  these  times  the  god  was  happiest  of  all,  for  at  the  festivals 
alone  it  was  that  he  and  his  relatives  held  full  sway  over  the  hearts  of  the  people. 

41.  And  some  there  are  who  believe  the  god  was  born  in  the  people's  play ;  others  that  at  the 
elaborate  festivals  he  came  to  life.  No  one  knows  but  what  they  may  be  saying  truth,  but  certain  it  is 
that  in  these  ways  he  grew  in  bone,  and  brawn,  and  strength,  and  color. 

42.  However  the  god  was  born,  it  is  clear  that  it  was  the  animals  who  were  all  unconsciously 
trying  to  become  people,  that  had  brought  him  to  life.  Moreover,  from  the  very  moment  the  god  drew 
breath,  in  his  effort  to  grow  up  he  (just  as  unconsciously)  helped  to  make  them  human.  Nothing  is  ever 
born  into  the  world  alone,  but  always  in  company  with  other  things.  When  a  child  is  born,  immediately 
a  father  and  a  mother  come  into  being.  The  gods  and  the  people  had  made  one  another.  And  this  is 
the  answer  to  the  question  which  all  sensible  children  frequently  ask :  "Who  began  the  beginner  ? " 

43.  Now  at  last  the  animals  were  really  people.  Much  of  the  hair  had  disappeared  from  off 
their  bodies ;  their  foreheads  had  grown  broader,  taller.  And  the  god,  too,  at  last  existed.  His  flesh  and 
bones  were  fully  formed,  however  many  the  changes  they  would  undergo  in  growing  up.  The  connec- 
tion between  these  two  things  must  now  be  clear ;  and  this  is  the  greatest  fact  in  the  world :  We  create 
ourselves  by  rubbing  elbows  with  many  other  things ;  while  all  the  other  things  in  turn  are  creating 
themselves  as  fast  as  ever  they  can  by  rubbing  elbows  with  one  another,  and  with  us.  And  in  the  be- 
ginning neither  we  nor  they  know  anything  about  what  is  happening. 


12 


NOTES. 

(FOR  GROWN  UPS.) 


SYLLABUS   OF   A    PSYCHOLOGY   OF    MUSIC. 


28.*  Analysis  of  the  Evolution  of  Musical  Form,  by  M.  H.  Glyn,  Chap.  VI :  "The  Evolution  of  the  Scale."  Examples  :  op. 
cit.,  Appendices  B  to  E.  A  successful  modern  example  of  pentatonic  usage  is  Edgar  Stillman  Kelly's  The  Lady  Picking  Mulberries. 
Pentatonic  practice  in  minor  is  unusual,  but  a  good  instance  is  the  "Japanese  Song"  in  Engel's  Music  of  the  Most  Ancient  Nations, 
p.  139.,  (London,  William  Reeves.  1864.) 

"Time  figures  form,  as  it  were,  the  skeleton  of  the  art,  and  lacking  these,  music  tends  to  become  invertebrate  or  wooden,  like 
human  figures  drawn  without  sense  of  anatomy".  (M.  H.  Glyn,  op.  cit.,  p.  148.) 

30.  Hirn:  Origins  of  Art,  Chap:  "Information". 

31.  "It  is  scarcely  possible  to  speak  of  the  beginning  of  music  without  at  the  same  time  thinking  of  the  dances  with  which 
it  was  intimately  associated It  is  more  than  a  mere  connection,  it  is  a  unified  organism.  ...  so  unified  that  it  is  nei- 
ther possible  to  treat  of  the  subject  of  primitive  dance  without  primitive  music,  nor  to  make  it  even  probable  by  means  of  ethnol- 
ogical examples,  that  they  were  ever  separated."— Wallaschek :  Primitive  Music. 

33.  The  culture  of  the  masses  is  inevitably  imaged  in  popular  art,  and  musicians  who  seek  to  understand  the  relation  of 
their  art  to  life  must  observe  the  methods  of  writers  of  popular  music  without  prejudice.  It  is  in  large  measure  thru  the  popular 
songs  and  dances  that  "people  are  being  made  in  our  day".  In  two  recent  songs  of  this  class  the  influence  of  the  words  on  the 
musical  time-outline  is  remarkable:  (1)  the  word  "nevertheless"  in  "I  Want  to  go  Back  to  Michigan";  (2)  the  words  "I  didn't 
want  to  do  it",  in  "You  Made  me  Love  You". 

35.  "An  interesting  fact  arises  from  the  study  of  the  bar,  and  this  is  the  close  relation  of  bar-figures  to  the  figures  of  dan- 
ces. It  is  as  if  the  bars  had  grown  up  out  of  the  necessities  of  the  dance ;  and  if  the  beat  can  be  considered  to  represent  a  step, 
the  dance  figure,  or  group  of  steps,  is  faithfully  imaged  in  the  standard  bar-figures  of  music.  This  is  true  not  only  of  music  ad- 
mittedly associated  with  the  dance,  but  is  evident  in  songs  and  more  complex  music  as  well,  such  as  sonatas  and  symphonies". 
—From  The  Time  Materials  of  Music,  by  George  Edwards,  Article  II,  printed  in  "The  Indicator"  (Chicago)  Mar.  11,  1914. 

36.  M.  H.  Glyn :  Op.  cit.  Chap.  II,  The  Simple  Standard  of  Time. 

40.  For  the  "Festival  Theory"  see  Brown:  The  Fine  Arts.  (New  York,  1891,  Charles  Scribner's  Sons.) 

41.  Groos:  The  Play  of  Animals,  and  The  Play  of  Man. 

42.  At  this  point  appears  the  transition  of  music  from  the  active  unconscious  period  to  the  period  of  attitudes  (emotional, 
self-conscious).  The  standard  materials  of  time  and  pitch  had  all  come  into  existence  in  connection  with  the  practical  activities 
of  life,  and  were  only  beginning  to  be  developed  further  for  the  purposes  of  pleasure  and  entertainment.  I  have  dwelt  more  par- 
ticularly upon  the  significance  of  the  first  period  for  the  reason  that  in  no  history  of  music  with  which  I  am  familiar  has  the 
unconcious  birth  of  the  elements  of  music  been  adequately  emphasized.  ^Music  was  at  first  purely  practical.)  Its  use  was  to  get 
things  done.  It  is  only  in  the  writers  on  sociology  and  psychology  such  as  those  above  quoted  that  this  significant  fact  has  been 
brought  out.    The  bearing  of  this  upon  the  conclusions  to  be  reached  in  the  story  will  be  apparent  in  future  chapters. 

*  Figures  refer  to  corresponding  paragraph  numbers  in  the  preceding  story. 


}         [(^Mr**^ 


NOV  22  1918 


UN  3  V  *  K  ol  TV 


THE  GOD  WHO  MADE  HIMSELF 

I. 

THE  GOD  WHO  DID  NOT  EXIST 

II. 

HOW  THE  GOD  WAS  BORN 

III. 

HIS  RELATIVES 

IV. 

HOW  HE  CLOTHED  HIMSELF 

V. 

HOW  HE  LEARNED  TO  WRITE 

VI. 

HOW  THE  GOD  AMUSED  HIMSELF 

VII. 

ADOLESCENCE 

VIII. 

MARRIAGE 

IX. 

DIVORCE 

x, 

THE  GOD'S  PHILOSOPHY 

XI. 

To  be 

THE  SOCIAL  REVOLUTIONIST 

issued  serially.    Cover,  10  cents.    Each  part,  10  cents. 

Subscription  complete,  in  advance,  one*  dollar. 

PUBLISHED    BY 

OSWALD  C.  COFFMAN. 

SAN  DIEGO.    CALIFORNIA. 

14 


THE   GOD   WHO    MADE    HIMSELF 

BY 

George  Edwards 


IV. 
HOW  HE  CLOTHED  HIMSELF 


44.  Like  other  children  the  god  loved  every  vivid  color.  At  first  the  colors  which  he  chose 
with  which  to  clothe  himself  were  rather  crude,  but  as  he  grew  older  gradually  his  taste  became  more 
and  more  discriminating,  until  at  last  he  knew  how  to  blend  the  most  intricate  shades  into  a  "changing 
garment"  for  his  delight,  and  for  the  pleasure  of  the  newly  made  people.  But  the  colors  were  not  such 
as  you  could  see,  but  only  hear.  And  for  a  very  long  time  the  only  color  which  was  available  at  all  was 
the  color  of  the  people's  voices. 

45.  One  of  the  first  things  which  made  him  think  of  color  was  the  conch-shells  which  ( as  I 
have  already  described )  the  animal-people  used  as  bugles.  These  they  had  seized  upon  because  their 
song  carried  much  further  than  the  unassisted  voices. 

46.  At  first  the  people  did  not  notice  the  new  color  with  which  the  conch-shells  invested  their 
songs.  But  the  god  did,  and  he  made  a  mental  note  that  some  day  his  dress  should  consist  not  alone  of 
the  single  color  of  the  people's  voices— beautiful  and  various  in  shade  as  they  often  were.  There  should 
then  be  borders  and  ornaments  besides  of  this  other  color— the  color  of  the  conch-shells.  But  this  he 
was  not  able  to  accomplish  for  a  very  long  time. 

47.  Meanwhile,  as  the  people  demanded  more  and  more  adequate  means  of  carrying  on  the  occu- 
pations of  their  daily  life,  other  colors  kept  springing  into  existence.  In  calling  forth  the  fire  or  rain, 
and  in  performing  magical  rites  for  healing  the  sick,  they  soon  learned  to  make  rude  bells.  They  had 
early  found  that  the  spirits  which  controlled  these  things  could  not  be  impressed  very  much  by  the  ordi- 
nary tones  of  the  people's  voices.  The  tones  which  the  bells  gave  forth  when  struck  were  of  a  peculiar 
color ;  one  which  was  entirely  different  from  the  color  of  their  voices  or  the  color  of  the  conch-shells. 
And  the  god  made  note  of  this  new  color  also,  and  determined  that  it  would  some  day  make  another 
splendid  ornament  for  his  apparel. 

48.  In  their  love-songs  the  people  soon  felt  the  need  of  the  most  delicate  colors,  and  by  mak- 
ing instruments  of  hollow  gourds  and  strung  with  metal  or  with  cat-gut  strings,  they  could  produce  up- 
on them  tone-colors  of  surprising  beauty.  So  that  a  lover  had  only  to  play  upon  this  simple  violin  ( even 
but  the  songs  the  birds  sang,  or  the  work-songs  which  everyone  knew  and  could  sing  by  heart )  and  his 
beloved  hearing  him  from  within  would  instantly  go  out  to  him,  and  lay  her  hand  in  his. 

49.  But  most  of  all  it  was  when  the  people  joined  the  god  with  his  brother  and  sister— the  other 
gods,  the  ones  who  talked  and  danced^that  new  and  brighter  colors  were  invented.  Because  the  length 
of  time  they  danced  would  tire  their  voices,  the  people  took  green  branches  from  the  trees  in  Spring  and 
made  them  whistles  (much  as  boys  do  now-a-days).  And  these  were  the  parents  of  all  the  flutes  and 
piccolos  in  the  world.  Or  by  stretching  grasses  over  the  mouths  of  the  whistles  they  could  make  the 
pipes  produce  much  shriller  tones.  And  thus  were  born  the  oboes,  clarinets,  bassoons  and  saxophones, 
in  all  the  various  shades  familiar  to  our  present  ears. 

50.    Already  there  were  drums  which  had  been  made  by  stretching  dried  skins  across  hollowed 

Copyright,  1916,  by  George  Edwards 


15 

gourds  and  other  vegetables ;  and  these  combined  with  all  the  other  instruments  which  I  have  described 
were  proving  a  splendid  stimulus  to  the  dances  the  people  had.  There  were  corroborees  to  celebrate 
the  wars  that  had  been  won,  and  to  spur  the  people  on  to  other  wars ;  religious  dances  to  celebrate  the 
birth  or  marriage,  or  in  lamentation  of  the  death  of  certain  individuals ;  and  many  other  dances,  which 
included  pantomimes  like  moving  pictures,  in  which  the  people  lived  over  again  the  delights  of  hunting, 
fishing,  and  the  like.  In  all  this  playing  of  the  instruments  and  voices  together  new  and  surprising  col- 
or combinations  constantly  came  to  light,  and  now  the  god  was  able  to  deck  himself  in  many  varieties 
of  dress. 

51.  And  the  boy-god,  when  he  talked,  liked  always  the  company  of  his  brother  who  sang. 
But  there  came  a  time  when  he  grew  a  little  jealous  of  the  god— our  god  (the  one  who  sang) — and  wish- 
ed him  to  keep  more  and  more  in  the  background.  He  did  not  wish  to  abolish  him  altogether,  for  he 
knew  the  people  loved  the  god  who  sang,  and  without  his  help  they  might  not  listen  to  the  god  who 
merely  talked.  So  he  invented  a  kind  of  instrument  called  harp,  which  should  provide  sufficient  means 
for  the  god  who  sang  to  accompany  him,  but  which  should  not  be  obtrusive  enough  to  cover  up  his 
words  when  he  should  talk.  While  at  first  this  procedure  hurt  the  feelings  of  our  god,  he  soon  discov- 
ered that  in  the  process  an  entirely  new  color  had  been  added  to  his  garments.  And  all  at  once  he  be- 
came entirely  happy  again. 

52.  Now  at  last  the  people  knew  the  god  existed.  This  was  because  they  had  come  to  love 
him  well  enough  to  invoke  him  for  the  pleasure  he  could  give  them.  The  many  colors  now  contained 
within  his  wardrobe  made  his  presence  particularly  agreeable  to  them,  for  as  long  as  the  only  clothes  he 
wore  were  colored  solely  by  their  voices,  it  was  not  so  easy  to  distinguish  him  from  themselves.  .  They 
called  the  god  "Apollo",  and  many  other  names ;  and  worshipped  him,  thinking  now  that  he  was  surely 
different  to  themselves.  For  all  the  time  that  he  was  being  born,  and  all  the  time  that  he  was  growing 
up,  the  people  were  so  occupied  with  merely  getting  a  living  they  never  took  the  time  to  reflect  that  it 
was  they  who  made  him! 


16 


NOTES. 

(FOR  GROWN  UPS.) 


SYLLABUS    OF    A    PSYCHOLOGY    OF    MUSIC. 


44*  The  form  and  development  of  primitive  instruments  are  described  in  detail  in  most  standard  histories  of  music,  but 
usually  with  little  emphasis  on  their  useful  origin.  Louis  Adolphe  Coerne  in  his  Evolution  of  Modern  Orchestration  ( New  York, 
The  Macmillan  Co.,  1908),  traces  their  origin  to  "religious  ritual  and  pleasure".  Religion,  as  I  have  shown,  is  but  one  of  the  social 
origins  of  music ;  and  pleasure,  while  accounting  to  a  great  extent  for  the  development  of  instruments,  has  been  shown  by  the 
sociological  writers  before  referred  to  as  an  effect  rather  than  a  cause  in  the  field  of  origins. 

"  If  the  sensuous  beauty  of  colour  be  its  most  obvious  attribute,  it  does  not  follow  that  this  was  the  determining  factor  in 
its  evolution.  Though  it  is  difficult  for  us  to  judge  of  what  decided  the  preference  of  the  primitive  savage  for  one  kind  of  tone 
rather  than  another,  there  seems  no  doubt  that  noise  pleased  him  far  more  than  abstract  beauty." — Glvn  :  The  Rythmic  Concep- 
tion of  Music,  p.  156. 

50.  Brown  :  The  Fine  Arts. 

51.  Too  much  importance  in  the  development  of  music  cannot  be  given  to  the  minstrels ;  or  minnesingers,  troubadours, 
trouveres,  etc.,  as  they  were  variously  called  in  different  countries.  "  In  Armenia  the  trouvere  still  fills  the  office  of  publisher  to 
many  poets,  and  by  his  singing  in  the  streets  of  the  villages  and  towns  gives  to  the  people  the  poetry  of  the  nation." — Kate  Buss 
in  Poetry  Magazine,  October,  1916. 

The  free  competition  of  minstrels  necessarily  made  for  rapid  development  in  their  art.  For  the  teaching  of  his  revolution- 
ary methods  in  composition  Wagner  could  find  no  happier  subject  than  The  Mastersingers  of  Nuremburg ;  for  in  such  a  situa- 
tion he  could  easily  pit  the  scholastics  against  the  innovator  to  the  confusion  of  the  former  and  the  victory  of  the  latter. 

In  ideas,  as  well,  the  minstrels  were  free  to  exercise  their  art  in  its  natural  function  of  socializing  the  people.  Goethe  speaks 
of  art  as  "the  great  librator".  In  all  ages  the  conventional  mediums  of  publicity  have  been  censored  if  not  controlled  by  officials 
in  the  interests  of  the  ruling  classes.  But  the  minstrels  could  go  about  among  the  people  stimulating  them  to  revolt  from  op- 
pression ;  suiting  their  message  to  their  auditors,  and  profiting  by  the  personal  contact  their  vocation  provided.  So  powerful 
was  their  influence  in  this  direction  that  a  number  of  the  members  of  the  first  Irish  convention  of  Harpers  provoked  the  enmity 
of  the  government.    Several  died  in  prison,  and  two  or  three  were  hanged.     (See  Redfern's  Annals  of  the  Irish  Harpers.) 

The  relation  of  ideas  to  music,  and  the  valuation  of  ideas  as  "personal"  and  "social"  will  be  treated  more  at  length  toward 
the  end  of  the  story.  At  this  point  I  will  only  say  further  that  the  modern  form  of  minstrelsy — the  melodrama  or  meldlog — has 
been  too  little  appreciated  by  musicians  as  a  means  of  teaching  the  geople  the  socializing  ideas  provided  by  the  host  of  modern 
sociologists,  socialists,  dramatists,  poets  and  the  like.  Of  all  the  great  musicians  of  our  epoch  Wagner  is  the  only  one  who  has 
looked  upon  his  art  as  an  instrument  for  reconstructing  the  customs  of  the  people.  (Shaw:  The  Perfect  Wagnerite.)  Will  he  be 
the  last? 

52.  When  the  people  finally  invoked  the  god  for  the  pleasure  he  gave  them,  they  entered  into  the  field  of  emotional  mu- 
sic. Psychologists  agree  that  the  first  "dimension"  (to  use  Wundt's  terminology)  of  emotion  is  that  of  "pleasure  and  pain".  In 
Behavior  Psychology  the  parallel  attitudes  are  appropriation  and  rejection. 

Regular  beats,  consonant  melody  and  harmony,  etc.,  had  been  produced  in  the  unconscious  way  I  have  described  in  previ- 
ous chapters.  These  form  the  standards  of  pleasure  to  which  innovators,  in  the  course  of  their  experiments,  add  all  the  pain- 
ful elements  they  can,  compatible  with  "esthetic  repose"  (Puffer:  The  Psychology  of  Beauty).  The  painful  elements  at  first 
were  ritards  and  accelerandos,  as  well  as  syncopation,  in  the  field  of  time  ;  and  dissonance  in  that  of  Harmony.  Development 
in  the  instruments  of  percussion  provided  sufficient  pain  in  the  elements  of  Intensity  and  Color. 

Another  "dimension"  of  emotion  is  that  of  "elation  and  depression".  This  is  imaged  in  the  increase  and  decrease  of  speed, 
and  the  rise  and  fall  of  pitch  in  music.     It  is  obvious  that  all  of  these  effects  were  in  use  in  the  practical  employments  of  music 
which  I  have  described.     The  question  arises:  How  much  has  the  form  of  music  been  instrumental  in  developing  the  emotions  of 
the  human  race  ?    The  question  is  old,  but  from  the  point  of  view  of  what  has  gone  before  it  is  here,  I  think,  a  new  one. 
*Figures  refer  to  corresponding  paragraph  numbers  in  the  preceding  story. 


H  st*  i  .^o 


AUG   2    1917 


J 

THE  GOD  WHO  MADE  HIMSELF 

L 

THE  GOD  WHO  DID  NOT  EXIST 

II. 

HOW  THE  GOD  WAS  BORN 

III. 

HIS  RELATIVES 

IV. 

HOW  HE  CLOTHED  HIMSELF 

V. 

HOW  HE  LEARNED  TO  WRITE 

VI. 

HOW  THE  GOD  AMUSED  HIMSELF 

vn. 

ADOLESCENCE 

VIII. 

MARRIAGE 

IX. 

DIVORCE 

X. 

THE  GOD'S  PHILOSOPHY 

XI. 

To  be 

THE  SOCIAL  REVOLUTIONIST 

issued  serially.    Cover,  10  cents.     Each  part,  10  cents. 

Subscription  complete,  in  advance,  one  dollar. 

PUBLISHED    BY 

OSWALD  C.  COFFMAN. 

184s    Third    street. 

SAN  DIEGO.    CALIFORNIA. 

18 


THE    GOD   WHO    MADE    HIMSELF 

BY 

George  Edwards 


V. 
HOW  HE  LEARNED  TO  WRITE. 


53.  For  a  long  time  the  god  who  talked  had  been  writing  down  his  words.  He  was  able  to 
do  this  partly  because  he  was  on  intimate  terms  with  one  of  his  cousins,  who  drew  pictures.  But  the 
god  who  sang  had  never  yet  written  down  his  songs. 

54.  Now  for  the  performing  of  magic  a  great  temple  had  been  built  with  the  help  of  the  god 
who  had  taught  the  people  how  to  build  their  homes.  The  temple  was  not  alone  for  the  purpose  of  in- 
voking the  spirit  of  fire.  The  people  had  long  since  discovered  that  fire  could  be  produced  by  the  sim- 
ple rubbing  of  dry  sticks  together,  without  any  incantation  whatever.  But  they  still  believed  that  sick- 
ness, weather,  war  and  fortune  could  only  be  controlled  by  magical  means ;  and  it  was  the  better  to  per- 
form these  rites  within  the  temple  that  they  first  put  the  god  in  school,  and  taught  him  how  to  write. 

55.  In  the  beginning  he  wrote  very  poorly,  as  all  children  do  in  the  first  grade.  But  not  as 
in  ordinary  going  to  school  (which  consists  for  the  most  part  in  copying  what  other  people  have  written), 
the  god-child  had  to  invent  the  signs  which  he  would  use.  After  some  time  he  succeeded  in  making 
very  fair  records  of  the  songs  they  sang  within  the  temple,  and  everyone  was  glad  the  god  had  learned 
to  write ;  however  few  were  they  who  could  read  what  he  had  written. 

56.  Unfortunately  his  success  made  the  god  unpleasantly  boastful.  He  said  that  it  was  in 
the  temple  he  had  learned  to  write,  and  therefore  the  value  of  the  temple  was  greater  than  everything 
else  in  the  world.  He  even  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  in  the  temple  he  was  born,  and  only  those  who 
served  therein  were  fit  to  have  anything  to  do  with  him. 

57.  The  god's  behavior  made  the  people  very  sad,  for  they  had  come  to  love  him  dearly.  But 
they  believed  that  they  must  take  his  word  for  this,  and  even  tho  they  were  at  first  unwilling  to  do  so 
they  began  to  look  with  suspicion  upon  every  song  which  was  not  written  down  within  the  library  of 
the  temple.  The  god's  mistake,  however,  was  very  natural ;  it  is  a  mistake  that  people  are  always 
making.  Since  everyone  else  appeared  to  trust  only  the  evidence  of  their  eyes,  the  god  who  sang  (and 
who  lived  only  in  sounds)  was  influenced  by  the  general  opinion.  It  is  as  if  we  should  say  that  dogs  are 
mistaken  in  their  practice  because  their  lives  depend  so  much  upon  the  sense  of  smell!  And  so  the 
god  could  not  believe  that  he  amounted  to  very  much  except  when  he  was  written  down.    • 

58.  The  god's  mistake  lasted  for  a  long  time,  and  his  arrogance  impressed  even  some  very 
thotful  men  named  Palestrina  and  Bach.  Palestrina  wrote  nearly  all  his  songs  for  the  temple  only,  and 
he  seemed  never  to  have  realized  (as  indeed  at  the  time  the  god  did  not)  that  unless  the  latter  had  been 
born  and  grown  up  among  the  people  as  they  toiled,  fought  wars,  played,  made  love,  and  sought  to  make 
permanent  their  little  store  of  knowledge,  there  would  have  been  no  bones,  nor  flesh,  nor  strength,  nor 
color  to  the  god— nothing  of  which  to  make  a  portrait. 

59.  But  the  thotful  man  whose  name  was  Bach  almost  found  out  the  god  was  boasting.  One 
day  a  question  arose  within  the  temple  whether  one  form  of  magic  should  be  used  within  its  walls  or 
another.  The  only  way  to  settle  it  appeared  to  be  to  build  another  temple.  But  when  the  new  temple 
had  been  made  the  priests  found  that  all  the  songs  had  been  left  behind,  and  immediately  they  set  to 
work  to  make  some  more.    Now  in  temples  songs  are  seldom  made ;  the  bones,  and  flesh,  and  strength, 

Copyright,  1916,  by  George  Edwards 


19 

and  clothing  of  the  god  (which  form  the  songs)  are  merely  borrowed  which  grow  up  among  the  people, 
as  they  work  and  fight,  play,  make  love,  and  pass  on  their  various  discoveries  about  Mother  Earth. 

60.  So  the  makers  of  the  temple  went  frankly  to  the  people  and  said :  "Lend  us  some  of  your 
songs ;  we  wish  to  use  them  for  your  good  within  the  new  temple  which  we  have  built".  And  the  peo- 
ple gave  them  of  their  songs,  for  they  were  very  pleased  to  have  the  god  whom  they  had  made  (and  who 
had  made  them)  recognized  once  more  for  what  he  really  was.  But  the  makers  of  the  temple  did  not 
really  mean  to  use  the  songs  just  in  the  form  they  were,  for  in  them  the  god  appeared  too  much  like 
ordinary  people.  They  took  the  bones  and  made  them  all  the  same  length ;  for  since  this  condition  had 
been  characteristic  of  the  writing  of  the  god  within  the  former  temple,  they  felt  that  only  thus  could  he 
be  known  as  he  really  was.  Thus  the  keepers  of  the  temple  but  fed  his  boastfulness  the  more,  and  were 
always  pleased  that  he  should  say  he  was  born  within  the  the  temple,  and  had  grown  up  there. 

61.  The  thotful  man  named  Bach  loved  the  people  dearly,  but  because  the  writings  of  the 
god  had  now  amounted  to  a  very  large  library,  and  as  Bach  had  come  to  know  him  mostly  by  reading 
and  copving  the  records  in  the  temple,  he  also  thot  the  temple  music  must  be  the  true  portrait  of  the  god; 
and  so  he  set  to  work  to  bring  the  new  temple  close  to  the  hearts  of  the  people. 

62.  Now  all  the  kinds  of  flute  and  bugle  in  the  world  had  been  set  on  end  and  attached  to  a  key- 
board, and  the  whole  was  called  an  organ.  Likewise  the  harps  had  been  laid  on  their  side  and  hammers 
corresponding  to  the  strings  had  been  attached  to  another  similar  keyboard,  and  this  was  called  a  harp- 
sichord. Because  the  organs  were  so  expensive  the  people  had  to  combine  together  to  make  them,  they 
were  set  up  in  the  temples.  The  harpsichords  were  cheaper,  and  some  of  the  people  could  have  them 
in  their  homes.  The  organs  were  therefore  used  exclusively  for  the  temple  songs,  whereas  the  harpsi- 
chords were  left  to  sing  the  songs  of  the  people.  The  former  music  was  called  "sacred";  the  latter  "sec- 
ular", or  "profane". 

63.  But  no  one  at  this  time  had  been  able  to  tune  so  many  flutes  and  so  many  strings  so  that 
that  they  were  all  in  tune  with  one  another.  This  the  god  taught  Bach  to  do.  But  this  was  only  one  of  the 
many  things  the  latter  did,  for  he  brought  the  temple  music  to  a  state  of  perfection  never  before  attain- 
ed in  any  of  the  god's  activities ;  and,  fortunately  for  the  god,  at  the  same  time  he  introduced  certain  el- 
ements of  the  people's  practice  which  paved  the  way  for  proving  to  the  god  how  foolish  his  boastfulness 
had  been,  and  for  giving  him  back  to  the  people  who  alone  could  keep  him  in  humility  and  simple  self- 
respect. 

64.  Thus,  while  the  god  had  taught  the  thotful  man  named  Bach,  the  latter  had  also  taught 
the  god  much  about  himself  of  which  before  he  had  been  in  ignorance.  And,  just  as  I  have  told  you  who 
began  the  beginner,  so  you  here  may  see  how  the  god  continued  to  grow.  For  by  now  the  god  was  very 
large. 

65.  But  long  before  this  time  he  had  received  the  name  of  "Music",  by  which  he  still  is  known 
to  nearly  all  the  people  in  the  world. 


20 


NOTES. 

(FOR  GROWN  UPS.) 


SYLLABUS   OF   A    PSYCHOLOGY   OF    MUSIC. 


54*  For  a  general  understanding  of  the  action  of  the  religious  consciousness  Dr.  Noel  Reichardt's  Significance  of  Relig- 
ion in  Brain  Development  (George  Allen,  London,  1912),  is,  with  certain  reservations,  one  of  the  most  helpful.  He  associates 
religious  consciousness  with  the  "pyramidal  cells"  of  the  cortex.  (See  cross-section  of  the  cortex  of  the  brain  in  Ladd's  Physio- 
logical Psychology,  or  any  other  standard  work  on  the  subject).  He  maintains  that  the  process  of  racial  development  is  the  con- 
necting up  of  these  cells  with  the  general  nervous  system,  so  that  the  illuminating  and  "intuitional"  experiences  of  the  ascetics 
and  seers  gradually  find  means  of  being  "checked  up"  by  objective  methods.  That  the  newest  connected  cells  are  the  means  of 
vivid  objective  experiences.  That  as  the  nervous  connections  establish  themselves  these  cells  perform  more  and  more  of  the 
functions  of  mere  habit,  progressively  losing  their  original  property  of  vividness. 

That  the  chief  characters  of  the  religious  consciouness  are  (1)  exaltation  of  self-consciousness,  resulting  in  the  stratifica- 
tion of  society  into  classes :  "the  principle  of  castes  expresses  this  deification  of  the  Self  in  the  classes  most  capable  of  the  pro- 
cess of  self-exaltation"  (p.  51).  (2)  The  dramatic  form  of  consciousness,  usually  associated  with  illumination  and  splendor,  as 
opposed  to  the  rational  method  which  represents  control  of  objective  environment. 

His  theory  is  that  the  organs  of  the  earliest  savages  were  not  sufficiently  connected  up  to  give  completely  objective  impres- 
sions of  the  objects  they  sensed,  so  that  stimulations  were  more  to  the  imaginative  "centers"  (the  pyramidal  cells)  than  to  the 
practical  control  of  environment.  This  was  especially  true  of  the  "partial  view"  of  trees,  streams,  animals,  etc. ;  hence  the 
"animism"  of  savages,  whereby  every  object  appears  to  be  animated  by  a  "spirit".  This  much  of  the  author's  work — his  facts 
of  primitive  life,  physiology,  religious  consciousness,  sociology,  etc. — is  a  valuable  contribution  to  scientific  literature. 

The  fact  that  he  appears  to  accept  the  reality  of  a  "Creator  of  the  Universe",  however,  points  to  his  own  fall  into  the 
primitive  error  he  describes — that  of  assuming  the  objective  reality  of  the  perceptions  of  these  "religious  centers".  This,  togeth- 
er with  his  failure  to  account  for  the  unconnected  cells  by  the  established  evolutionary  doctrine,  of  the  growth  of  organs  in  re- 
sponse to  the  needs  of  immediate  life,  seem  to  me  to  render  his  conclusions  of  less  certain  scientific  value. 

55.  For  the  evolution  of  notation,  see  Vincent  d'Indy :  Cours  de  Composition  Musicale,  Premier  Livre  (Durand,  Paris, 
1898),  Chapter  3. 

56.  The  Rythmic  Conception  of  Music  (Glyn)  Chapter  2:  "The  Evidence  of  History". 

59.  Luther  is  credited  with  saying :  "Why  should  the  devil  have  all  the  good  tunes  ? ",  and  establishing  the  hymnal  for 
his  church  on  the  songs  of  the  people. 

60.  But  he  did  not  leave  the  tunes  as  the  devil  gave  them ;  but  converted  them  for  the  most  part  into  time-outlines  of 
equal  notes :  the  Chorales,  such  as  Old  Hundred,    A  Mighty  Fortress,    etc. 

61.  Bach :  Chorales,  Passion  Music,  Church  Cantatas,  etc.    Handel :  Oratorios. 

63.  Bach  did  much  to  establish  fugues  upon  the  "ternary"  type  of  popular  practice  in  the  relationship  of  keys  and  the 
balance  of  the  large  sections  of  a  movement.  He  has  been  said  to  have  been  much  influenced  (along  with  Handel)  by  the  Ital- 
ian standards  of  the  time,  in  which  "form"  in  the  sense  of  "relation  of  all  parts  to  the  whole"  had  reached  a  high  condition  of 
unity  and  variety.  Prout  has  shown  that  fugues  are  of  simple  "ternary  type",  consisting  of  exposition,  development  in  related 
keys,  and  recapitulation  in  the  original  key.     (Fugue,  Fug al  Analysis,  Augener  &  Co.) 

♦Figures  refer  to  corresponding  paragraph  numbers  in  the  preceding  story. 


<><SW>-Cl^^^O . 


AUG   2    191/ 


• 

THE  GOD  WHO  MADE  HIMSELF 

I. 

THE  GOD  WHO  DID  NOT  EXIST 

II. 

HOW  THE  GOD  WAS  BORN 

III. 

HIS  RELATIVES 

IV. 

HOW  HE  CLOTHED  HIMSELF 

V. 

HOW  HE  LEARNED  TO  WRITE 

VI. 

HOW  THE  GOD  AMUSED  HIMSELF 

VII. 

ADOLESCENCE 

VIII. 

MARRIAGE 

IX. 

DIVORCE 

X. 

THE  GOD'S  PHILOSOPHY 

XL 

To  be 

THE  SOCIAL  REVOLUTIONIST 

issued  serially.     Cover,  10  cents.     Each  part,  10  cents. 

Subscription  complete,  in  advance,  one  dollar. 

PUBLISHED    BY 

OSWALD  C.  COFFMAN. 

1849    Third    street. 

SAN  DIEGO.    CALIFORNIA. 

22 


THE   GOD   WHO    MADE    HIMSELF 

BY 

George  Edwards 


VI. 

HOW  THE  GOD  AMUSED  HIMSELF. 


66.  When  I  tell  you  how  the  god  amused  himself  I  do  not  mean  he  did  not  work ;  children 
never  work  so  hard  as  when  they  play.  What  I  really  mean  is  that  after  he  had  learned  to  write,  what 
he  next  set  out  to  do  was  with  the  object  of  getting  all  the  immediate,  fun  he  could,  without  any  ref- 
erence to  what  his  acts  were  for— their  later  meaning.  As  we  have  seen,  until  this  time  the  god  had 
labored  hard.  He  had  helped  the  people  do  their  work ;  had  helped  them  light  their  fires ;  had  helped 
them  fight  their  wars,  make  love,  and  form  a  record  for  their  simple  science.  Now  he  meant  to  learn 
how  to  enjoy  life.  And  I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  he  thot  very  much  about  it  either ;  the  greatest 
events  in  life  come  about  before  we  know  them,  and  only  afterwards  are  we  in  a  position  to  realize  all 
they  mean  for  our  development.    But  I  must  not  moralize  as  yet ;  I  will  tell  you  what  he  did. 

67.  There  was  at  this  time  a  thotful  man  named  Haydn  who,  like  Bach,  had  learned  about 
the  god  by  reading  in  the  temples.  Very  probably  (except  for  another  fortunate  accident  of  which  I 
mean  to  tell  you)  Haydn,  too,  would  have  worked  away  his  life  within  the  temple— either  the  new  one 
or  the  old— and  would  only  have  contributed  to  the  boastfulness  of  those  who  kept  it,  as  well  as  to  the 
pride  of  music  (for,  as  I  have  said,  before  this  time  the  god  had  received  the  name  of  Music). 

68.  But  by  now  the  rulers  of  the  people  had  observed  how  much  the  god  was  able  to  con- 
tribute to  their  feasts  and  other  pleasures.  And  one  of  these  (a  Prince)  seized  the  thotful  man  named 
Haydn,  and  carried  him  away  from  the  temple  to  his  castle  in  the  wilderness.  There  he  was  told  that 
he  must  write  a  new  piece  of  music  every  day  for  the  entertainment  of  the  Prince's  guests.  And  be- 
cause the  thotful  man  was  there  provided  with  a  complete  orchestra,  measured  by  the  standards  of  that 
time  (for  now  the  god  possessed  a  very  large  wardrobe  of  clothes  of  many  colors),  he  was  not  at  all  dis- 
pleased with  his  new  home.  He  did  as  he  was  bade,  produced  a  new  piece  of  music  every  day,  and  laid 
it  beside  the  Prince's  plate  where  the  latter  should  see  it  at  his  breakfast.  And  every  piece  of  music 
added  to  what  there  was  already  of  the  god  made  him  grow  at  a  rapid  pace,  particularly  in  length  as  I 
shall  presently  describe ;  just  as  most  young  men  and  women  do  who  shoot  up  suddenly  to  the  height 
of  mature  people  before  they  begin  to  fill  out  in  all  the  various  proportions  suitable  to  grown-ups. 

69.  Life  went  along  in  this  manner  very  well  for  a  time,  until  that  the  things  to  write  about 
began  to  run  out ;  and  then  the  thotful  man  was  sore  beset  to  fill  the  Prince's  daily  order.  But  near  the 
latter's  castle  lived  many  farmers  and  other  makers  of  comfortable  things,  such  as  carpets,  clothing, 
cakes,  bread,  wine,  books,  tables  and  the  like.  This  was  because  a  ruler's  power  and  money  always 
come  from  taxes  paid  by  the  people  who  live  upon  his  land ;  and  in  order  for  sufficient  money  to  be 
forthcoming,  there  must  always  be  a  large  number  of  working  people  to  sell  what  they  have  made. 
These  people  always  sang  when  they  were  at  work— songs  in  which  as  I  have  shown  the  god  was  born ; 
songs  of  love,  and  songs  containing  stories,  even  songs  about  war.    (For  tho  they  always  dreaded  war, 

Copyright,  1917,  by  George  Edwards 


23 

they  were  frequently  compelled,  because  of  the  rulers'  quarreling  among  themselves,  to  go  and  fight.) 
Very  often,  too,  the  people  would  hold  festivals  and  fairs,  and  at  these  times  all  the  songs  were  sung 
over  and  over  again.    And  the  god  who  talked,  and  likewise  she  who  danced,  were  always  present,  too. 

70.  The  thotful  man  named  Haydn  went  to  the  fairs  and  wrote  down  the  songs  and  dances. 
For,  having  learned  to  write  within  the  temple,  he  could  do  this  easily,  even  tho  the  people  had  not  the 
slightest  idea  what  he  was  doing.  Thus  every  day  he  could  make  a  new  composition  and  lay  it  on  the 
Prince's  breakfast  table.  The  day  was  saved,  and  never  thereafter  did  the  thotful  man  run  out  of  things 
to  write  about. 

71.  But  the  pieces  as  he  wrote  them  down  were  much  too  short  to  last  thru  dinner.  That 
was  the  time,  when  his  guests  were  holding  conversation  among  themselves,  that  the  Prince  liked  most 
to  have  the  god  on  display.  And  so  the  thotful  man  invented  ways  to  string  the  people's  songs  together 
and  make  longer  pieces,  treating  them  with  all  the  cunning  devices  which  he  had  learned  within  the  tem- 
ple for  spinning  out  and  decorating  the  simple  hearty  tunes.  He  scarcely  knew  how  important  all  this 
was.  People  are  always  making  something  for  a  certain  use,  only  to  find  when  it  is  made  that  it  is 
much  more  suited  to  another,  nobler  purpose. 

72.  Other  thotful  men  came  after  Haydn,  and  spun  out  pieces  of  ever  greater  length ;  but 
always  held  together  by  the  most  intricate  workmanship;  and  revealing  in  their  finish  all  the  balance, 
sweep,  and  unity  characteristic  of  the  finest  architecture,  such  as  temples,  palaces,  castles  and  the  like. 
Some  of  their  names  were  Mozart,  Schubert,  and  Beethoven.  And  many  think  the  last  named  thotful 
man  was  the  greatest  friend  the  god  possessed ;  the  man  who  knew  him  best  and  loved  him  most  in 
spite  of  that. 


24 


NOTES. 

(FOR  GROWN  UPS.) 


SYLLABUS   OF   A    PSYCHOLOGY    OF    MUSIC. 


66*    Groos:  The  Play  of  Animals,  and  The  Play  of  Man. 

67.  The  remarkable  achievement  of  Bach  seems  to  have  been  the  summing  up  of  the  era  before  him,  the  era  of  practical 
music.  For  more  than  anything  else  he  was  the  propagandist  of  the  Protestant  movement.  As  Bach  is  the  earliest  of  the  com- 
posers whose  names  appear  to  any  extent  upon  modern  programs,  many  people  erroneously  think  of  him  as  the  father  of  mod- 
ern music.  It  is  rather  Haydn,  whose  early  works  can  scarcely  be  distinguished  from  folk  music,  who  forms  the  natural  link 
between  primitive  music  and  our  modern  style ;  revealing  Bach  as  a  phenomenon  aside  from  the  straight  course  of  evolution — 
the  product  of  the  newly  invented  notation  system,  and. of  the  artificial  methods  of  the  monastic  school  of  composers.  The  dif- 
ference is,  briefly,  the  difference  between  the  polyphonic  method :  in  which  equal  importance  is  credited  to  every  voice  which 
takes  part — the  ideal  of  the  early  church  composers;  and  the  "rythmitonal"  method  :  in  which  a  principal  melody  is  accompanied 
by  chords,  or  at  most  by  melodies  subsidiary  in  character — as  in  the  people's  practice. 

68.  Tolstoi:  What  is  Art  ?  Oddly  enough  Tolstoi's  book  has  been  disdained  by  the  very  people  who  hold  that  only  the 
great  artist  is  capable  of  judging  a  work  of  art.  This  is,  I  think,  because  the  intense  social  consciousness  of  the  book  is  not  a 
common  possession  among  the  profession  of  artists.  For  few  are  they  who  hold  that  Tolstoi  was  not,  or  at  least  had  not  been, 
a  great  artist  at  the  time  he  wrote  this  book.  His  theory  is,  briefly,  that  the  democratic  nature  of  art  disappeared  from  the  mo- 
ment of  the  aristocratic  patronage  of  artists.  That  the  true  function  of  art  (from  the  Greek,  meaning  "joining")  is  the  social 
"infection"  of  the  people  with  common  emotions.  That  the  ideal  of  art  for  the  sake  of  pleasure  makes  it  an  exclusive  possess- 
ion of  the  "upper"  classes,  for  the  reason  that  only  they  have  the  leisure  and  the  means  to  enjoy  it.  That  the  effect  of  this  ex- 
clusiveness  is  a  limitation  of  subject  matter :  pride,  sex,  and  ennui  being  the  chief  of  those  which  remain.  That  the  methods  of 
this  degenerate  art  are  borrowing,  imitation  ;  resulting  in  affectedness,  and  substitution  of  interest  for  emotion.  That  the  result 
upon  artists  is  the  sin  of  separateness— professionalism,  which  he  treats  under  the  heads  of  remuneration,  criticism,  and  schools 
of  art.  His  own  criteria  are  individuality,  clearness,  sincerity,  and  for  subject  matter  universal  experience  and  the  ideal  of  broth- 
erhood. Religion  is  above  all  in  his  theory  the  proper  subject-matter  for  art,  and  his  religion  appears  to  be  a  socialistic  inter- 
pretation of  Christianity. 

Whatever  one  may  think  of  the  particular  morality  upon  which  Tolstoi  insists,  the  earnest  artist  cannot  fail  to  be  impressed 
by  the  democracy  of  his  ideal  for  art.     Whether  it  shall  be  his  kind  of  democracy  or  ours  is,  of  course,  another  question  ! 

69.  Wagner  also  held  this  view  at  one  time.  In  his  Art  and  Revolution  he  declared  that  until  the  people  were  free  from 
poverty,  thus  assuring  a  free  audience,  the  creative  artist  himself  could  not  be  free  to  materialize  the  very  best  of  which  he  was 
capable.  In  other  words,  the  artist  and  the  people  are  members  of  the  same  "organic  circuit";  or,  in  still  other  words,  creator 
and  percipient  are  the  two  ends  of  the  same  stick., 

70.  Brown  :  The  Fine  Arts. 

72.    For  a  comparison  of  music  with  architecture  see  Gurney :  The  Power  of  Sound. 

♦Figures  refer  to  corresponding  paragraph  numbers  in  the  preceding  story. 


t 


AUG    2    1917 


THE  GOD  WHO  MADE  HIMSELF 

L 

THE  GOD  WHO  DID  NOT  EXIST 

II. 

HOW  THE  GOD  WAS  BORN 

III. 

HIS  RELATIVES 

IV. 

HOW  HE  CLOTHED  HIMSELF 

V. 

HOW  HE  LEARNED  TO  WRITE 

VI. 

HOW  THE  GOD  AMUSED  HIMSELF 

VII. 

ADOLESCENCE     ' 

VIII. 

MARRIAGE 

IX. 

DIVORCE 

X. 

THE  GOD'S  PHILOSOPHY 

XI. 

To  be 

THE  SOCIAL  REVOLUTIONIST 

issued  serially.     Cover,  10  cents.     Each  part,  10  cents. 

Subscription  complete,  in  advance,  one  dollar. 

PUBLISHED    BY 

OSWALD  C.  COFFMAN. 

1849    Third    street. 

SAN  DIEGO.    CALIFORNIA. 

26 


THE   GOD   WHO    MADE    HIMSELF 

BY 

George  Edwards 


VII. 
ADOLESCENCE. 


73.  By  this  time  the  god  was  nearly  grown  to  manhood.  His  bones  were  fully  formed ;  for, 
as  I  have  just  described,  they  had  waxed  by  means  of  the  pieces  added  to  him  by  various  thotful  men, 
until  he  was  as  tall  as  a  normal  god  should  be.  His  flesh  was  firm  and  healthy  because  of  his  active 
life  among  the  people,  being  at  times  a  most  complex  structure,  and  at  others  as  simple  and  pliant 
as  in  most  young  men.  In  strength  he  had  attained  very  great  force,  and  yet  when  occasion  demanded 
he  could  be  as  gentle  as  a  baby  lamb.  His  wardrobe  now  included  clothes  of  every  color,  from 
the  deep  blues  and  greens  of  the  bassoons  and  clarinets  to  the  lighter  shades  of  flute  and  oboe; 
from  the  deepest  to  the  lightest  browns  and  reds  of  basses,  cellos,  violas,  and  violins ;  and  in  it  were 
many  other  colors  given  him  by  the  trombones,  horns,  trumpets,  and  divers  instruments  of  percussion. 
And  then  he  fell  in  love. 

74.  Not  with  anyone  or  with  anything  in  particular ;  but  just  as  love  first  comes,  with  every- 
thing and  everybody  in  general.  He  loved  the  rocks  and  hills  and  streams  laughing  in  the  sunlight,  or 
mystically  sleeping  under  the  moon.  He  loved  the  flowers  and  trees  with  all  their  many  colors  and 
their  smells.  For  it  was  Spring,  and  all  the  possibilities  of  the  budding  earth  seemed  made  alone  for 
him,  and  corresponded  with  the  floods  of  energy  which  pervaded  him.  He  loved  the  birds  and  animals, 
especially  those  which  lived  the  free  life  of  the  woods  and  meadows,  and  the  fishes  of  the  open  sea. 
For  he  never  saw  one  of  them  imprisoned  for  labor  or  for  curiosity  that  he  did  not  pity  it,  and  regret  in 
some  degree  its  vanished  freedom. 

75.  But  above  all  he  loved  the  people.  For  most  of  them,  he  thot,  were  not  nearly  so  well  off 
as  the  birds  and  animals,  and  the  fishes  in  the  sea— free  to  go  and  come ;  to  work  only  when  they  need- 
ed food  and  shelter,  (and  in  the  wilds,  where  there  are  no  signs  against  trespassers,  this  was  very  sim- 
ple) ;  to  play  about  until  they  were  tired ;  and  then  to  "loafe  and  invite  their  Souls".  Even  those  who 
(by  collecting  rents  and  taxes)  had  gained  sufficient  leisure,  did  not  seem  to  know  what  to  do  with  it ; 
for  nearly  everyone  else  was  busy  all  the  time  gaining  the  money  necessary  to  pay  the  rents  and  taxes, 
and  there  was  no  one  then  to  do  these  things  along  with  them.  They,  least  of  all,  knew  how  to  hunt 
surprises  in  the  forest— romantic  glens,  dells  of  ferns,  homes  of  birds  and  snakes  and  burrowing  ani- 
mals. But  the  god  loved  them  all-  the  masters  and  the  workers  alike—  for  none  of  them  knew  very 
much  how  to  behave  differently  to  their  forebears.  What  was  good  enough  for  their  fathers  was  good 
enough  for  them ;  and  never  in  the  memory  of  anyone  had  there  been  a  time  when  they  did  not  resem- 
ble a  hugh  nigger  pile.  A  few  on  top  were  supported  by  a  vast  throng  underneath,  struggling  and  toil- 
ing ;  and  too  little  educated  and  too  under-nourished  to  get  out  from  beneath  and  claim  for  free  and 
pleasant  living  all  the  vast  spaces  round  about  the  piles.  For  those  on  top  had  early  learned  to  hold  these 
spaces  out  of  use  lest  there  should  be  no  pile  to  have  a  top. 

76.  He  did  not  know  why  he  was  in  love.  Other  thotful  men  named  Schumann,  Chopin,  and 
Mendelssohn  had  all  contributed  pieces  which  developed  his  affections.  They  forsook  the  lengthy  meth- 
ods of  their  predecessors,  and  devoted  themselves  to  shorter  songs  imaging  as  faithfully  as  possible  the 

CopjTight,  1917.  by  George  Edwards 


27 

people's  love  of  Mother  Earth,  of  plants  and  animals.  Likewise,  all  the  moods  and  feelings  of  the  people 
for  one  another,  became  the  subjects  of  their  music.  Spring  songs,  brook  songs,  dream  songs,  carnivals, 
boat  songs,  serenades,  love  songs— these  were  all  they  wrote  about.  Whatever  in  tones  could  image  an 
attitude  of  yearning  for  anything  under  the  sun,  these  men  seized  upon  and  formed  into  pieces  which 
they  added  to  the  god's  young  body.  Or  should  I  say  that  these  were  mostly  meant  to  grow  his  nerv- 
ous system  ?  For  wise  men  tell  us  that  feeling  is  the  action  mostly  of  the  nervous  system,  and  most  of 
all  the  "sympathetic  nervous  system"  winding  in  and  out  among  our  vital  organs. 

77.  While  the  god  had  been  learning  to  write  within  the  temple  this  yearning  had  been 
growing  up  within  him.  At  first  it  was  a  yearning  for  a  Universal  Father.  Later,  when  he  entertained 
the  Prince's  guests  the  yearning  was  for  the  Infinite.  (For  a  peculiar  thing  called  "Metaphysics"  was  a 
favorite  subject  with  the  Prince's  guests ;  and  these  conversations  always  began  with  the  "Absolute".) 
And  now  the  yearning  was  for  the  fields,  the  woods,  the  animals,  the  people.  But  one  thotful  man 
named  Gurney  merely  laughed  at  the  poor  adolescent  god,  and  declared  that  in  reality  all  his  yearning 
was  but  a  yearning  for  the  next  note! 


28 


NOTES.      ' 

(FOR  GROWN  UPS.) 


SYLLABUS    OF   A    PSYCHOLOGY    OF    MUSIC. 


73.*    G.  Stanley  Hall:  Adolescence,  (two  vols.) 

74.  The  history  of  emotional  theory  is  briefly  as  follows. 

If  we  begin  with  Darwin,  it  is  clear  that  emotion  was  conceived  to  be  an  "inner  state"  which  under  certain  conditions  is 
followed  by  some  gesture  which  is  its  "expression".  (Darwin:  The  Expression  of  Emotion  in  Men  and  Animals.)  For  a  num- 
ber of  years  discussion  of  emotion  centered  about  the  time-relation  of  the  feeling  and  the  expression.  Wundt  followed  Darwin 
with  a  theory  of  "psycho-physical  parallelism",  which  meant  that  whether  feeling  or  expression  comes  first,  at  least  they  always 
accompany  each  other.  He  described  emotion  in  terms  of  "dimensions":  pleasure-pain,  intensity,  duration,  etc.  The  James-Lange 
theory  followed  this  with  the  disrupting  theory  that  expression  precedes  emotion.  "We  see  a  bear,  start  to  run  away  (an  in- 
stinctive or  reflexive  action)  and  then  feel  afraid."  (William  James:  Psychology.)  From  among  these  three  points  of  view 
everyone  could  take  his  choice,  and  the  limits  of  time-relation  between  emotion  and  expression  seemed  to  be  exhausted. 

Dewey  next  attacked  the  problem  from  a  different  angle.  He  conceived  that  every  emotion  consists  of  a  conflict  between 
opposing  instinctive  or  reflexive  tendencies.  (John  Dewey:  The  Theory  of  Emotion,  in  the  Psychological  Review,  Vols.  2  and  3.) 
Dr.  Kate  Gordon  has  taken  his  theory  as  the  basis  for  her  investigation  of  art-psychology:  (Gordon:  Esthetics.)  She  suggests 
that  the  great  principle  of  "contrary  motion",  which  is  familiar  to  students  of  Harmony,  is  the  perfect  image  of  this  conflict  of 
tendencies  which  constitutes  emotion;  and  thus  she  accounts  for  its  origin.  Students  of  Harmcny  will  be  reminded  by  this  that 
much  of  the  richness  of  effect  which  enters  into  music  consists  of  the  tendencies  of  tones  in  process  of  satisfying  themselves: 
dissonance  and  resolution,  suspension,  retardation,  etc.  In  this  statement  "richness"  stands  for  emotion.  (Frank  H.  Shepard, 
in  his  text-book  on  Harmony  appropriately  speaks  in  terms  of  "tendency  notes").  In  syncopation,  as  well,  the  conflict  of  the 
"time-outline"  with  the  beats  furnishes  another  example  of  the  emotional  quality  of  "opposition  of  tendencies". 

Most  recent  of  all  is  the  "Behavior"  theory,  tirelessly  seeking  terms  which  will  bring  psychology  into  the  class  of  sciences 
of  observation.  It  discards  the  term  "emotion"  altogether,  substituting  "attitude"  therefor,  thus  bringing  psychology  and  art- 
technique  closely  together.  Actors;  for  instance,  have  long  been  used  to  speaking  of  "attitudes"  as  the  objectification  of  feel- 
ings. According  to  the  new  psychology,  any  instinctive,  or  unconscious  action  which  is  thwarted,  or  checked,  in  any  way  so 
that  it  may  not  at  once  accomplish  its  immediate  end,  results  in  an  "attitude".  The  field  of  attitude  takes  the  place,  under  this 
theory,  of  the  field  of  emotion,  or  feeling,  in  the  older  thinking. 

It  is  probable  that  the  Dewey  theory  is  still  the  best  for  the  understanding  of  musical  psychology,  for  even  an  attitude  is 
analyzable  into  a  "conflict  of  tendencies".  And  in  the  materials  of  music  the  tendencies  of  tones,  and  how  far  they  are  to  be 
satisfied,  delayed  or  denied  is  the  composer's  primary  concern.  It  is,  as  Schopenhauer  imagined,  as  if  the  tones  had  a  will  of 
their  own;  and  the  composer  may  impose  his  will  upon  them  only  by  duly  considering  the  innate  tendencies  of  the  tone- 
materials. 

75.  "The  ownership  of  land  is  the  basis  of  aristocracy.  It  was  not  nobility  that  gave  land,  but  the  possession  of  land  that 
gave  nobility.  .  .  .  The  right  of  the  lord  to  the  soil  acknowledged  and  maintained,  those  who  lived  upon  it  could  do  so  only 
upon  his  terms.  The  English  land  owner  of  today  has,  in  the  law  which  recognizes  his  exclusive  right  to  the  land,  essentially 
all  the  power  which  his  predecessor  the  feudal  baron  had.  .  .  .  Our  boasted  freedom  necessarily  involves  slavery,  so  long  as 
we  recognize  private  property  in  land.  Until  that  is  abolished,  Declarations  of  Independence  and  Acts  of  Emancipation  are  in 
vain.  So  long  as  one  man  can  claim  the  exclusive  ownership  of  the  land  from  which  other  men  must  live,  slavery  will  exist,  and 
as  material  progress  goes  on,  must  grow  and  deepen.  .  .  .  Private  ownership  of  land  is  the  nether  millstone.  Material  prog- 
ress is  the  upper  millstone.     Between  them,  with  an  increasing  pressure,  the  working  classes  are  being  ground." 

— Henry  George:  Progress  and  Poverty. 

76.  Emotion  and  the  Sympathetic  System :  James'  Psychology. 

77.  Gurney :  The  Power  of  Sound. 

*Figures  refer  to  corresponding  paragraph  numbers  in  the  preceding  story. 


CJ*r**sW> 


Jun  i   mi 


THE  GOD  WHO  MADE  HIMSELF 

I. 

THE  GOD  WHO  DID  NOT  EXIST 

II. 

HOW  THE  GOD  WAS  BORN 

III. 

HIS  RELATIVES 

IV. 

HOW  HE  CLOTHED  HIMSELF 

V. 

HOW  HE  LEARNED  TO  WRITE 

VI. 

HOW  THE  GOD  AMUSED  HIMSELF 

VII. 

ADOLESCENCE 

VIII. 

MARRIAGE 

IX. 

DIVORCE 

X. 

THE  GOD'S  PHILOSOPHY 

XI. 

To  be 

THE  SOCIAL  REVOLUTIONIST 

issued  serially.     Cover,  10  cents.     Each  part,  10  cents. 

Subscription  complete,  in  advance,  one  dollar. 

PUBLISHED    BY 

OSWALD   C.  COFFMAN. 

4S11      44TH     STREET. 

SAN  DIEGO.    CALIFORNIA. 

30 


THE   GOD   WHO    MADE    HIMSELF 

BY 

George  Edwards 


VIII. 
MARRIAGE. 


78.  The  real  object  of  all  the  god's  yearning  (tho  he  did  not  know  it  at  the  time)  was  "to  be- 
come one"  with  something  to  merge  his  "self"  with  another  self,  and  find  repose.  For  years  he  had 
been  yearning  for  the  things  I  have  described,  without  attaining  any  lasting  satisfaction.  On  the  contra- 
ry, the  more  he  yearned  for  them  the  more  restless  he  became,  until  at  last  a  thotful  man  named  Wagner 
felt  the  god's  great  need,  and  undertook  to  satisfy  his  longing.  But  before  I  tell  you  what  he  did,  I  must 
show  how  the  gods  and  the  people  appeared  to  him,  and  how  the  needs  of  both. 

79.  For  a  long  time  the  people  had  maintained  that  this  merging  of  one's  self  into  another 
self  is  what  is  meant  by  marriage.  And  ever  since  the  god  who  talked  had  learned  to  write,  they  had 
been  taught  by  the  rulers  and  the  keepers  of  the  temples  that  every  such  marriage  should  be  written 
down,  both  in  the  library  of  the  temple  and  in  the  office  of  the  castle.  There  were  various  forceful  rea- 
sons for  this,  altho  most  people  thot  it  merely  a  pretty  custom.  (The  event  was  always  made  a  holiday 
for  the  people,  and  on  that  day,  at  least,  everybody  had  enough  to  eat  and  to  drink.)  Among  these  rea- 
sons was  the  feeling  for  the  Family,  which  could  be  made  permanent  only  by  a  careful  registering  of 
what  each  person  owned— particularly  in  the  way  of  land.  For  a  family's  standing  depended  greatly  on 
whether  it  owned  the  land  or  merely  worked  upon  it.  The  system  of  registering  thus  made  possible  the 
passing  on  of  property  from  parents  to  children  thru  successive  generations. 

80.  Another  forceful  reason  for  the  writing  down  of  marriages  was  that  all  the  women  (how- 
ever much  the  men  insisted  that  the  women  should  be  better  than  themselves)  were  really  slaves,  and 
the  only  way  the  men  could  prove  their  ownership  of  them  was  by  securing  from  the  temples  written 
"certificates"  whereby  all  the  world  might  read  for  themselves  the  fact. 

81.  All  the  gods,  believing  that  the  people's  yearning  was  the  most  delightful  part  about  them 
(for  in  that  the  people  were  very  like  themselves),  praised  this  marriage  as  a  beautiful  thing.  This  was 
for  the  reason  that  it  encouraged  the  people  (whom  the  gods  had  made,  and  whom  they  wished  to  grow 
as  rapidly  as  possible)  to  yearn  as  much  as  possible— for  trees,  and  homes,  and  most  of  all  for  one  anoth- 
er. Incidentally,  the  gods  had  come  to  know  that  only  thus  could  the  people  help  the  gods  themselves 
to  grow. 

82.  But  for  a  long  time  the  gods  were  as  blind  as  every  one  else  to  the  fact  that  under  this 
plan  marriage  was  fast  becoming  an  empty  form.  For  anyone  who  wished  to  secure  his  property  for  his 
children,  or  his  wife  for  himself,  had  only  to  apply  for  the  proper  certificate  from  a  priest  or  a  prince. 
(Most  people  secured  theirs  from  both  in  order  to  be  entirely  sure).  Thus  the  natural  yearning  for  qual- 
ities of  beauty,  truth,  and  justice  bade  fair  to  giving  way  to  yearning  merely  for  quantities  of  property. 
Meanwhile  all  the  yearning  for  quality  in  the  world  was  held  of  little  account  unless  the  certificate  were 
obtained ;  and  so  the  world  was  full  of  people  bound  by  life-long  contracts  never  to  yearn  for  anyone  but 
their  partners,  and  yet  in  reality  yearning  hopelessly  all  the  while. 

83.  So,  at  least  it  all  appeared  to  Wagner,  for  he  was  taught  by  another  thotful  man,  named 
Bakunin,  only  to  yearn  for  beauty,  truth,  and  justice.  Bakunin  saw  how  the  people  suffered,  from  over- 
work and  under-nourishment ;  how  they  loved  and  yearned  in  vain ;  and  he  declared  that  all  the  yearning 
in  the  world  would  develop  neither  gods  nor  people  unless  there  were  always  a  possibility  of  attaining 

Copyright.  1917.  by  George  Edwards 


31 

the  objects  of  desire,  thus  paving  the  way  to  new  and  worthier  yearnings.  Then  he  declared  that  all  the 
priests'  and  princes'  boasts  were  vapor.  That  if  for  ages  the  people  had  not  been  taught  from  childhood 
to  believe  these  rulers'  claims,  they  would  have  had  no  power ;  and  then  their  sanction  would  be  worth- 
less. Furthermore,  he  said  that  the  gods  themselves  had  been  taught  by  the  priests  and  princes  as  well 
as  by  the  working  people,  and  that  they  (the  gods)  were  duped  as  much  as  anybody  by  the  narrow 
teaching  of  the  smaller  class. 

84.  So  Wagner  wrote  some  operas  which  should  accomplish  at  one  stroke  the  two  greatest 
needs  in  the  world— the  yearning  of  the  god  of  music,  and  the  freedom  of  the  working  people.  For  the 
first  he  did  what  nearly  everybody  does :  the  very  thing  he  meant  to  preach  against.  He  married  the 
god  to  all  his  brother  and  sister  gods.  But  this  was  bad  enough,  for  in  order  to  maintain  a  little  rift  in 
the  strict  securing  of  the  land  to  single  families,  the  priests  and  princes  had  decreed  that  no  one  should 
marry  his  brother  or  his  sister  -scarcely  even  his  cousin.  Now  Wagner  had  written  an  opera  in  which 
the  hero's  father  and  mother  were  brother  and  sister,  and  so  he  thot  that  by  marrying  the  gods  to  one 
another  the  dictum  of  the  people's  teachers  would  be  sufficiently  scandalized.  And  it  was,  as  the  rest 
of  my  story  will  show. 

85.  For  the  marriage  the  thotful  man  was  sore  beset  for  a  fitting  place.  Naturally  the  priests 
would  not  allow  such  a  disgraceful  marriage  to  take  place  within  the  temples,  for  they  had  ruled  not 
only  that  brothers  and  sisters  should  not  marry,  but  that  only  one  man  and  one  woman  should  be  mar- 
ried during  the  period  of  a  single  contract.  And  this  "social  marriage"  of  all  the  gods  together  was  sim- 
ply not  to  be  considered.  Most  of  the  princes,  too,  were  of  a  like  opinion,  and  they  would  have  nothing 
to  do  with  such  a  scheme.  Partly  for  this,  and  partly  because  Wagner  helped  Bakunin  in  a  desperate 
effort  to  free  the  people  of  his  home  from  the  tyrrany  of  the  rulers,  the  princes  banished  Wagner  to  an- 
other country ;  and  so  for  twelve  years,  one  month,  and  twenty-one  days  he  was  not  allowed  to  set  his 
foot  upon  his  native  land ;  and  for  a  time  the  thotful  man,  who  loved  the  people  and  the  gods  so  much, 
despaired  of  ever  being  able  to  make  them  happy,  either  one. 

86.  Oddly  enough  he  still  believed  in  the  princes,  and  toward  the  end  of  his  life  he  wrote  an 
opera  for  which  some  accused  him  of  believing  even  in  the  priests,  and  taking  their  side  against  the  peo- 
ple. However  that  may  be,  during  the  period  of  his  exile  he  wrote  a  letter  to  his  countrymen  outlining 
a  plan  for  building  a  suitable  structure  in  which  to  house  the  gods  (for  in  his  operas  he  had  already  mar- 
ried them  in  spite  of  every  opposition).  He  said  the  right  kind  of  a  home  would  cost  a  great  deal  of  mon- 
ey ;  and  that  only  a  prince  would  be  likely  to  care  enough  for  the  gods'  happiness,  and  at  the  same  time 
have  sufficient  money,  to  put  up  the  home.  And  he  ended  the  letter  with  the  words  "Wird  dieser  Fiirst 
sich  finden  ? "  ("Will  such  a  Prince  be  found  ?  ") 

87.  Just  as  in  every  sensible  fairy-tale  the  Prince  was  found.  He  loved  the  gods  and  was 
very  glad  that  they  were  happily  married.  He  did  not  care  so  much  as  Wagner  did  for  the  people;  but 
he  loved  the  thotful  man  so  much  that  he  sent  for  him  (as  soon  as  the  other  princes  agreed  to  let  him 
return  to  his  native  country)  and  gave  him  a  beautiful  home  only  ten  minutes  walk  from  his  own  castle 
on  the  shores  of  a  beautiful  lake.  And  three  times  daily  the  King  (for  by  now  the  Prince  had  become 
the  King)  would  send  his  finest  carriage  to  the  door  of  Wagner's  home  to  bring  him  to  the  palace.  And 
Wagner  loved  the  King  as  much,  saying,  "He  is,  alas !  so  beautiful  and  intellectual,  so  sympathetic  and 
delightful,  that  I  am  afraid  his  life  must  fade  away  in  this  common  world  like  a  dream.  He  loves  me 
with  the  depth  and  ardor  of  first  love ;  he  knows  everything  about  myself,  and  understands  me  like  my 
own  soul.  He  wants  me  to  be  with  him  always,  to  work,  to  rest,  to  produce  my  works ;  he  will  give  me 
everything  I  need.  I  am  to  finish  my  operas  and  he  will  have  them  performed  as  I  wish."  Could  any 
fairy-tale  be  more  satisfactory  than  this  ? 


32 

88.  The  god  of  Music  was  very  pleased  at  this,  for  now  at  last  he  was  to  have  a  home  equal 
to  those  in  which  the  priests  and  princes  lived.  But  several  years  were  to  elapse  before  this  happy  event 
was  accomplished ;  for  many  were  envious  of  the  thotful  man's  success,  saying  that  the  King's  yearning 
for  the  thotful  man  was  a  wicked  yearning,  and  not  according  either  to  the  rules  of  the  priests  nor  the 
laws  of  the  princes ;  and  Wagner  was  forced  to  flee  once  more  for  his  life.  But  the  King  sent  him  mon- 
ey on  which  to  live  in  his  second  exile,  and  in  disguise  he  visited  the  thotful  man  in  his  pleasant  home 
by  the  shore  of  another  lake,  many  miles  away. 

89.  At  last,  however,  the  home  for  the  gods  was  built  (tho  in  another  country  than  the  King's, 
for  the  people  never  forgave  him  for  wanting  to  spend  as  much  money  on  the  gods  as  he  did  on  temples 
and  castles).  And  the  gods  lived  in  peace  and  harmony  together.  Besides  the  god  of  music  were  the 
girl  who  danced,  the  boy  who  talked,  and  all  the  others  who  drew  and  painted  pictures,  built  houses, 
made  statues,  etc. 

90.  And  now  that  the  marriage  was  complete,  the  priests  and  princes  joined  together  to  cele- 
brate the  same,  saying  "See  how  great  a  marriage  we  have  made !  Only  a  mind  that  was  born  in  our 
country  could  have  accomplished  so  great  an  event ! "  And  so  distended  was  their  pride  that  for  a  long 
time  afterwards  they  were  ready  even  to  go4o  war  to  prove  the  value  of  the  gods  which  they  pretend- 
ed they  had  made. 


NOTES. 
(for  GROWN  UPS.) 


SYLLABUS    OF    A    PSYCHOLOGY    OF    MUSIC. 


*78.    Edward  Carpenter:  The  Drama  of  Love  and  Death,  Love's  Coming  of  Age,  etc.     (Mitchell  Kennedy). 

83.  Bakunin  :  God  and  the  State.     Wagner :  My  Life. 

84,  85.    Wagner :  The  Ring  of  the  Niebelung.     Shaw :  The  Perfect  Wagnerite.     Wagner :  Art  and  Revolution. 

For  the  pros  and  cons  of  "inbreeding",  by  accepting  which  for  the  origin  of  Siegfried  Wagner  raised  so  great  a  storm,  see 
Clouston :  Unsoundness  of  Mind,  p.  72. 

86.    Nietszche  :  The  Fall  of  Wagner. 

86,  87.  Finch :  Wagner  and  His  Works,  vol.  2,  p.  123,  f.  n.  For  other  facts  on  the  value  of  romantic  friendship,  see  Car- 
penter's Intermediate  Sex. 

90.  The  slogan  of  "Kultur"  and  the  narrow  conception  of  art  as  something  exclusively  German  are  familiar  phenomena  to 
students  of  the  present  war. 


♦Figures  refer  to  corresponding  paragraph  numbers  in  the  preceding  story. 


Sv'w^'t^Za 


k^*JjLSJLsd         lAs\       cX<    '   /J 


JUL  i.9  1917 


THE  GOD  WHO  MADE  HIMSELF 

I. 

THE  GOD  WHO  DID  NOT  EXIST 

II. 

HOW  THE  GOD  WAS  BORN 

III. 

HIS  RELATIVES 

IV. 

HOW  HE  CLOTHED  HIMSELF 

V. 

HOW  HE  LEARNED  TO  WRITE 

VI. 

HOW  THE  GOD  AMUSED  HIMSELF 

VII. 

ADOLESCENCE 

VIII. 

MARRIAGE 

IX. 

DIVORCE 

X. 

THE  GOD'S  PHILOSOPHY 

XI. 

To  be 

THE  SOCIAL  REVOLUTIONIST 

issued  serially.    Cover,  10  cents.     Each  part,  10  cents. 

Subscription  complete,  in  advance,  one  dollar. 

PUBLISHED    BY 

OSWALD  C.  COFFMAN. 

■4311      44TH     STREET. 

SAN  DIEGO.    CALIFORNIA. 

6 


OP  THE 
UNI  VE  KSJT  V 
C  OF 


34 


THE   GOD   WHO    MADE    HIMSELF 

BY 

George  Edwards 


IX. 
DIVORCE. 


91.  Perhaps  because  the  thotful  man  had  not  included  them  all ;  or  else  for  another  reason, 
which  I  shall  presently  tell  you,  there  came  a  time  when  the  marriage-bonds  proved  irksome  to  the  gods. 
For  after  Wagner  died  his  wife  became  their  keeper.  She  believed  that  all  the  gods  were  in  the  home, 
and  she  determined  that  while,  on  certain  conditions,  the  people  might  visit  them,  none  of  them  should 
go  away  from  home  but  by  her  leave.  As  you  may  well  imagine  neither  the  people  nor  the  gods  approv- 
ed of  this,  but  for  a  long  time  there  seemed  nothing  to  do  but  let  her  have  her  way  with  them. 

92.  Now  a  thotful  man  named  Nietzsche  who  (before  the  king)  had  loved  Wagner  nearly  as 
much  as  he,  suddenly  declared  that  for  a  long  time  Wagner  had  been  making  a  mistake.  That  whereas 
at  first  he  had  bade  the  people  be  strong  and  throw  off  the  shackles  of  the  priests  and  kings,  toward  the 
last  he  had  taught  them  to  submit,  "renounce",  and  the  like.  Furthermore  that  all  his  marriage  of  the 
gods  together  had  accomplished  was  to  render  them  more  slavish  than  they  had  ever  been  before.  He 
bade  the  gods  be  "super"-men :  strong  and  beautiful ;  and  full  of  "holy  laughter": 

93.  Other  thotful  men  named  Brahms,  Bruckner,  Reger  and  others,  advised  the  god  of  Music 
to  leave  his  home— by  force  or  strategy  if  necessary— and  go  back  to  the  Prince  who  originally  carried 
him  away  to  his  castle  in  the  wilderness ;  there  to  write  ever  longer  pieces  with  which  to  entertain  the 
Prince's  guests.  Others,  named  Franck,  Saint  Saens,  d'Indy,  advised  him  to  go  back  even  to  the  temple 
where  he  had  learned  to  write.  Another  named  Grieg,  and  still  another  named  Mac  Dowell  (who  lived 
beyond  the  seas,  in  America)  thot  he  should  return  but  to  his  former  life  before  his  marriage  and  live 
again  in  the  fields  and  woods,  with  the  flowers,  birds  and  animals,  making  love-songs  of  various  kinds ; 
and  dwell  once'more  among  the  people. 

94.  But  this  last  he  could  not  see  his  way  to  do  for  the  reason  that  by  now  the  largest  number 
of  the  people  had  ceased  to  sing.  And  what  is  more,  they  were  no  longer  in  the  woods  and  fields  as  for- 
merly. Then  they  had  been  poor  and  frequently  unhappy;  but  they  always  had  fresh  air,  and  frequently 
could  take  the  time  to  commune  with  Mother  Earth.  But  this  was  so  no  longer.  They  had  become  yet 
poorer  and  unhappier ;  and  had  left  the  fields  and  woods  to  live  in  crowded  misery  in  narrow  rooms  and 
cellars.  And  this  was  thru  the  simple  device  of  inventing  machines  to  save  their  labor !  Now  they 
could  do  nothing  but  attend  machines  for  many  hours  a  dav,  or  else  wander  aimlessly  about  despised 
and  rejected  of  men,  for  the  reason  that  they  could  not  get  "work".  (What  they  really  meant  was  "mon- 
ey" ;  but  the  owners  of  the  land  and  of  the  machines  told  them  that  they  did  not  want  to  work,  and  most 
of  them  believed  that  they  had  only  to  get  work  in  order  to  have  sufficient  money.) 

95.  However,  everybody  agreed  that  the  gods  should  be  divorced.  The  question  where  they 
should  go  could  be  determined  later.  One  by  one  they  slipped  away  from  the  beautiful  home  built  for 
them  by  Wagner  and  the  King,  and  went  to  dwell  in  various  places.  After  this,  however,  they  were 
more  often  than  before  to  be  seen  in  threes  and  couples.  For  instance,  the  girl  who  danced  and  the  god 
of  music  were  often  seen  together  playing  the  most  intricate  and  elaborate  games.  They  had  been  seen 
absorbed  in  these  particularly  in  Russia.    In  these  plays  they  frequently  told  stories  which  were  under- 

Copyright,  1917,  by  George  Edwards 


35 

stood  by  everyone  merely  by  the  gestures  of  her  body  and  the  intricate  attitudes  of  his  music.  For  every 
day  the  god  had  gained,  thru  all  these  strange  adventures,  complexity  of  bony  structure,  flexibility  of 
flesh,  variety  of  strength,  and  beauty  of  vestment. 

96.  But  most  often  he  was  seen  in  company  with  the  boy  who  talked.  Many  maintained  that 
these  two  at  least  should  never  again  be  separated,  but  should  experience  all  their  future  adventures  to- 
gether as  loyal  and  affectionate  comrades.  This  was  probably  because  the  boy  had  now  developed  far 
ahead  of  him,  and  could  teach  him  many  things  about  himself.  He,  too,  had  lived  much  of  his  life  with- 
in the  temples.  He,  too,  had  dwelt  with  the  Prince,  and  had  entertained  the  Prince's  guests.  And  he,  as 
well  as  Music,  had  experienced  the  love  of  Mother  Earth,  and  had  written  lovingly  not  only  of  the  ani- 
mals but  of  the  people. 

97.  But  earlier  than  Music  he  discovered  that  it  was  the  people  who  had  made  him.  He  some- 
times said  quite  openly  that  the  claims  of  priests  and  princes  both  to  having  produced  him  were  fabri- 
cations. And  at  times  he  wondered  if  the  thing  to  do  next,  which  would  serve  the  double  purpose  of  giv- 
ing him  something  new  to  write  about  and  at  the  same  time  give  him  greatest  pleasure,  would  not  be  to 
devote  himself  to  freeing  the  people,  all,  from  their  unfortunate  servitude?  "For",  he  one  day  said,  "since 
we  are  nearly  grown,  is  there  anything  left  for  us  to  do  but  play  with  the  people  and  make  them  as  hap- 
py as  possible  ?  But  this  we  cannot  do  at  present  except  with  very  few,  for  most  of  them  are  in  perpet- 
ual bondage  to  the  machines  and  to  the  land,  and  have  no  time ;  nor  do  they  know  quite  how  to  play 
with  us  even  if  they  had  the  time. 

98.  This  philosophy  was  taught  him  by  such  thotful  men  as  Shelley,  Ibsen,  Hauptmann,  Shaw, 
Galsworthy,  Moore,  and  many  others.  And  as  by  this  time  the  gods  had  come  to  know  each  other  very 
well,  and  love  each  other  very  much,  it  is  not  strange  the  god  who  talked  (whose  name  was  Poetry) 
could  influence  Music  to  acknowledge  at  last  that  it  was  the  people  who  had  really  made  him,  the  com- 
mon ordinary  people,  not  the  princes  nor  the  priests ;  and  set  him  wishing  he  also  might  do  something 
to  relieve  them  from  their  endless  suffering.  For  if  he  could,  then  they  would  have  time  to  play  with 
him,  and  all  the  necessary  opportunity  to  learn  how  to  play  if  they  did  not  already  know.  Children 
who  have  never  had  the  time  to  play,  nor  materials  to  use  with  which  to  represent  still  other  things  (for 
this  is  the  essence  of  play,  as  well  as  the  stuff  of  all  the  gods)  really  do  not  know  how  to  play  when  once 
both  the  material  and  the  time  together  are  left  to  them. 

99.  He  could  not  even  set  about  this  all  at  once,  however,  for  all  his  habits  clung  to  him.  In 
the  temple  he  had  been  taught  to  yearn  for  a  Universal  Father  and  the  one  great  Absolute,  instead  of 
for  the  many  simple  people.  In  the  Prince's  castle  he  had  learned  to  yearn  for  Pleasure.  But  the  pleas- 
ure that  was  meant  was  for  the  few  who  had  sufficient  leisure,  not  for  the  many  in  the  fields  and  in  the 
shops.  But  at  least  he  made  a  logical  beginning.  The  two  gods  put  their  heads  together  and  selected 
a  thotful  man  named  Wilde  and  another  whose  name  was  Strauss  to  make  an  opera.  Both  these  men 
they  knew  were  well  aware  of  the  people's  dire  distress,  but  the  play  they  took  was  not  one  in  which  the 
people's  need  was  emphasized.  It  was  instead  a  story  which  the  god  of  Poetry  had  learned  when  he 
lived  within  the  temple.    Its  name  was  Salome. 

100.  So  they  tried  again.  Another  thotful  man  whose  name  was  Maeterlinck  had  written  a 
story  of  the  people  in  which  he  compared  them  to  the  bees,  showing  clearly  forth  the  overwhelming 
value  of  the  working  bees  and  working  people.  But  again  they  forgot  to  examine  the  play  to  see  if  it 
would  do,  for  knowing  Maeterlinck's  love  for  the  people  so  well,  they  assumed  that  everything  he  wrote 
must  image  that.    And  when  they  had  a  thotful  man  named  Debussy  write  the  music,  they  found  they 


36 


were  still  as  far  from  their  object  as  ever  before.  But  both  Strauss  and  Debussy  had  added  many  pieces 
of  important  texture  to  the  organism  of  the  god  of  music,  and  now  that  he  was  freed  from  formal  mar- 
riage, he  bade  fair  to  become  as  fully  matured  as  his  brother  within  a  very  short  time. 


NOTES. 

(FOR  GROWN  UPS.) 


SYLLABUS    OF    A    PSYCHOLOGY    OF    MUSIC. 


92.*    Nietzsche :  The  Case  of  Wagner,    Beyond  Good  and  Evil,    etc. 

94.  Veblen  :  The  Theory  of  a  Leisure  Class.     Henry  George  :  Progress  and  Poverty. 

95.  VanVechten  :  The  Russian  Ballet  (in  Music  After  the  Great  War.) 

96.  Niecks:  Program  Music.    Glyn  :  The  Rythmic  Conception  of  Music  (chap.  "Association  of  Ideas") ;  Evolution  of  Musi- 
cal Form  (chap.  "Music  and  Language.") 

98.  Shelley :  Prometheus  Unbound.     Ibsen  :  An  Enemy  of  the  People,  etc.     Hauptmann :  The  Weavers,  etc.    Galsworthy  : 
Justice,  The  Freelands,  etc.    Moore  :  Hail  and  Farewell,     The  Brook  Kerilh,  etc. 

99.  Tolstoi:  What  Is  Art?    Wilde:  The  Soul  of  Man  Under  Socialism,    Intentions,  etc. 
100.    Maeterlinck :  The  Life  Of  The  Bee,     The  Blind.     Debussy  :  Pelleas  and  Melisande. 


NOV    7  iau 


OF  THE 
UNIVERSITY 


THE  GOD  WHO  MADE  HIMSELF 

I. 

THE  GOD  WHO  DID  NOT  EXIST 

II. 

HOW  THE  GOD  WAS  BORN 

m. 

HIS  RELATIVES 

IV. 

HOW  HE  CLOTHED  HIMSELF 

v. 

HOW  HE  LEARNED  TO  WRITE 

VI. 

HOW  THE  GOD  AMUSED  HIMSELF 

VII. 

ADOLESCENCE 

VIII. 

MARRIAGE 

IX. 

DIVORCE 

X. 

THE  GOD'S  PHILOSOPHY 

XI. 

To  be 

THE  SOCIAL  REVOLUTIONIST 

issued  serially.     Cover,  10  cents.     Each  part,  10  cents. 

Subscription  complete,  in  advance,  one  dollar. 

PUBLISHED    BY 

OSWALD  C.  COFFMAN. 

BOX     223. 

LA  JOLLA.    CALIFORNIA. 

38 


THE   GOD   WHO    MADE    HIMSELF 

BY 

George  Edwards 


X. 
THE  GOD'S  PHILOSOPHY. 


101.  Meanwhile  the  writers  of  songs  and  the  makers  of  "symphonic  poems"  were  doing  all 
they  could  to  set  to  music  the  ideas  of  authors  who  had  joined  the  great  movement.  "The  Joy  of  Living" 
was  their  one  great  theme.  Eut  to  the  masses  of  the  people  (if  they  ever  heard  the  music)  all  these 
pieces  were  but  mockery ;  for  they  had  no  access  to  the  means  of  living,  even  if  they  had  the  necessary 
time  in  which  to  enjoy  themselves.    And  so  at  last  the  god  of  Music  set  about  his  task  in  earnest. 

102.  First  of  all  he  stopped  to  consider  what  were  the  ways  in  which  he  was  likely  to  grow. 
A  thotful  woman  had  established  the  fact  that  all  the  elements  of  Music  had  come  to  life  in  the  songs  of 
the  people.  This  we  have  already  seen.  But  she  claimed  that  the  most  important  part  of  his  being  was 
his  skeleton,  and  that  later  on  more  complexity  than  ever  was  to  enter  into  his  bones.  Already  Music 
was  feeling  the  effect  of  this,  but  he  knew  that  he  must  prepare  to  grow  much  further  in  this  direction. 
Another  thotful  man  named  Grainger  held  that  even  the  beats,  which  hitherto  had  been  the  standard  of 
measurement  for  all  his  bones,  should  be  abandoned.    But  so  far  he  had  never  seen  that  experiment  tried. 

103.  Thotful  men  and  women  had  been  experimenting  with  his  flesh,  as  well.  This  was  also 
very  complex,  for  it  had  long  since  ceased  to  consist  merely  of  seven-tone  scales,  but  had  grown  to  those 
of  twelve.  Even  these  were  felt  by  some  to  be  limited.  A  thotful  man  named  Schoenberg  experiment- 
ed with  his  flesh,  and  of  him  another  thotful  man  once  wrote :  "His  mission  is  to  free  harmony  from  all 
rules.  With  Schoenberg  freedom  in  modulation  is  not  only  permissible,  but  is  an  iron  rule ;  he  is  obsess- 
ed by  the  theory  of  overtones,  and  his  music  is  not  only  horizontally  and  vertically  planned,  but  so  I  pre- 
tend to  hear,  also  in  a  circular  fashion.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  consonance  and  dissonance,  only  im- 
perfect training  of  the  ear."  But,  "he  is  never  petty.  He  sins  in  the  grand  manner  of  Nietzsche's  Su- 
perman, and  he  has  the  courage  of  his  chromatics.  ...  He  boils  down  the  classic  form  to  one  move- 
ment, and  begins  developing  his  idea  (motive?)  as  soon  as  it  is  announced."  Another  innovator  named 
Busoni  even  complained  that  flesh  composed  of  twelve-tone  scales  was  not  fine  enough ;  and  argued  for 
"quarter-steps"  and  "third-steps"  to  fill  up  the  gaps  in  the  ordinary  chromatic  system. 

104.  Finally  a  thotful  man  named  vanVechten  fired  the  biggest  cannon  of  all.  He  declared 
that  the  god  had  lived  too  long  in  Germany.  That  people  had  become  so  accustomed  to  think  of  him  as 
a  German  god  that  they  were  in  danger  of  forgetting  that  he  was  a  god  who  came  to  save  the  world,  and 
all  of  its  people.  That  "development"  from  little  pieces  was  not  the  way  his  flesh  should  be  composed. 
(In  Germany  the  god  had  learned  to  think  that  such  development  was  the  highest  possible  standard  for 
his  flesh).  Furthermore  he  said  that  after  the  "Great  War"  the  god  was  going  anyway  immediately  to 
Russia,  where  academic  development  was  looked  upon  with  disapproval ;  and  where  the  thotful  people 
were  experimenting  with  flesh  for  the  god  of  an  entirely  new  texture, — more  spontaneous,  more  melodi- 
ous, and  at  the  same  time  much  more  complicated  in  the  large  relation  of  all  the  parts  to  the  whole  of  a 
piece.  That  some  of  these  experimenters  were  the  greatest  innovators  of  them  all.  Their  names  were 
Moussorgsky  (who  had  lived  at  the  time  the  gods  were  married,  but  whose  pieces  were  only  just  begin- 
ning to  be  added  to  the  body  of  the  god),  Rimsky-Korsikoff,  Strawinsky,  and  others. 

Copyright,  1917.  by  George  Edwards 


39 


105.  Meanwhile  the  variety  of  the  god's  strength  had  grown  enormously.  This  element  of 
his  growth  was  not  so  much  talked  and  written  about,  but  certain  it  was  that  contrasts  of  very  loud  and 
very  soft  (in  the  new  pieces  which  were  being  added  to  his  body),  had  continued  to  grow  in  perfect  bal- 
ance with  his  bones  and  flesh.  His  songs  would  now  include  every  shade  of  intensity  from  the  faintest 
whisper  to  the  most  deafening,  if  not  ear-splitting,  blasts  and  blares. 

106.  Just  as  remarkable,  too,  was  the  growth  of  his  wardrobe.  Many  experimenters  were  at 
work  upon  this  element  of  his  development.  The  thotful  man  named  Strauss  had  gone  the  furthest  in 
this  field  of  anybody — at  least  in  some  opinions ;  and  he  had  even  revised  the  leading  book  upon  the 
wardrobe  of  the  god,  bringing  it  up  to  date— and  even  beyond — with  such  amazing  and  daring  ideas  of 
color-combination,  that  it  was  difficult  for  many  people  to  take  him  seriously.  But  the  Russians  were 
just  as  busy  in  another  way  preparing  for  the  god's  reception  at  the  close  of  the  "Great  War".  They  did 
not  so  much  talk  about  as  put  into  practice  the  ideas  of  color  that  were  in  the  air  among  thinking  Rus- 
sians. While  many  thot  these  costumes  would  appear  to  the  god  more  odd  than  beautiful,  others  thot 
to  the  contrary ;  and  the  god,  when  he  heard  of  these  opinions,  determined  not  to  make  up  his  mind  with 
regard  to  them  in  advance,  but  to  try  them  all  on  his  body;  and  then,  by  watching  the  people's  reactions 
to  them,  decide  by  that  means  which  should  be  his  regular  costumes. 

107.  On  the  side  of  Ideas,  as  well,  he  thot  of  what  his  growth  was  likely  to  consist.  The 
thotful  man  named  Strauss  had  posed  the  question,  "Why  cannot  music  express  philosophy  ?  Meta- 
physics and  music  are  sister  and  brother."  (This  statement  of  relationship  seemed  startling  at  the  first, 
but  manv  thotful  men  had  long  before  decided  that  metaphysics  is  much  more  an  art  than  a  science.) 
"Even  in  music  one  can  express  a  viewpoint,  and  if  one  wishes  to  approach  the  Riddle  of  the  Universe, 
perhaps  it  can  best  be  done  with  the  aid  of  music."  And  immediately  he  composed  a  piece  for  the  god's 
body  which  should  contain  the  ideas  of  the  thotful  man  named  Nietzsche.  And  many  thot  that  this  was 
his  most  successful  gift. 

108.  The  god  was  much  impressed  by  this,  and  he  determined  that  his  life  should  no  longer 
consist  alone  of  motives  and  development,  to  which  anyone  could  supply  whatever  ideas  they  pleased 
and  thus  distort  at  times  his  meaning.  For  this  had  especially  pained  him  when  he  saw  his  pieces  dis- 
torted for  the  further  enslavement  of  the  people— the  very  Hero  which  he  most  yearned  to  liberate. 
For  the  priests  and  the  princes  both  were  still  in  the  habit  of  claiming  him  for  their  own  on  account  of 
his  tremendous  influence  over  the  hearts  of  the  people.  And  every  piece  that  had  no  title  by  which  to 
announce  its  meaning,  was  claimed  by  one  or  the  other  group,  or  both,  (for  they  often  planned  together), 
to  mean  that  the  god  was  still  of  the  opinion  that  they  were  the  most  important  classes  in  the  world, 
that  they  had  made  him,  and  that  they  had  most  contributed  to  his  later  growth. 

109.  This  power  of  his  over  the  people  was  his  greatest  asset ;  and  lately  he  had  come  to  re- 
alize it,  as  well  as  that  the  people  had  both  brought  him  into  life  and  caused  him  to  grow  up.  The 
growth  of  the  people  was  (because  of  gratitude),  his  chief  concern.  He  noticed  that  the  people  grew  in 
happiness  in  proportion  as  the  inventions  of  the  scientific  men  among  them  were  converted  by  the  art- 
ists into  forms  fitted  to  instruct  and  liberate  the  people  as  a  whole.  Long  before  this  a  thotful  man 
named  Goethe  had  spoken  of  art  as  "the  great  liberator".  And  some  had  referred  to  the  god  of  Music 
as  the  greatest  god  of  all.  People  who  invented  heavens  could  think  of  nothing  so  perfectly  fitted  to 
characterize  the  "highest"  heaven  of  them  all  as  music.  One  of  the  best  of  these  inventions  was  made 
by  a  thotful  woman  named  Olive  Schreiner,  and  frankly  called  a  "Dream".  Even  exact  and  practical 
statements  of  Music's  worth  were  made  by  thotful  men  who  were  chiefly  known  for  their  love  of  the 
god  of  Poetry    Poe  and  Pater.    They  declared  that  "all  art  is  great  in  proportion  as  it  approaches  the 


42 


THE   GOD   WHO    MADE    HIMSELF 

BY 

George  Edwards 


XL 
THE  SOCIAL  REVOLUTIONIST. 


110.  As  I  have  suggested,  the  god  cordially  welcomed  all  the  experiments  upon  his  body.  He 
co-operated  with  those  who  were  adding  pieces  in  which  his  bones  appeared  more  complex.  He  set  to 
work  on  his  own  account  to  add  some  new  texture  to  his  flesh,  by  making  pieces  in  which  the  quarter- 
steps  were  introduced.  These  he  made  at  first  of  violin  color,  for  instruments  with  keys  were  formed  on 
the  half-step  principle,  and  permitted  no  such  juggling  with  their  rfgidly  "punctuated"  scale.  He  intro- 
duced the  new  tones  carefully,  however,  taking  hints  from  the  use  of  them  in  the  pieces  contributed  to 
his  body  by  the  people  of  the  Far  East.  (There  were  many  of  these  pieces,  but  since  he  had  lived  so 
much  in  Germany,  many  refused  to  admit  that  these  pieces  sent  from  India  really  fitted  into  his  body. 
And  the  god  was  influenced,  as  on  so  many  occasions,  by  the  general  opinion.)  The  places  where  he 
first  introduced  the  quarter-steps  were  the  same  as  those  in  which  the  half-steps  had  first  appeared, 
namely,  below  doh  (from  which  his  flesh  had  developed  in  the  first  place),  and  above  me,  (which  also  had 
appeared  in  the  very  beginning  of  his  life).  This  procedure  made  smoother  and  finer  endings  to  his 
pieces  than  ever  before.  Later  on  he  introduced  them  in  various  parts  of  his  scale  in  the  manner  in 
which  the  other  half-steps  had  next  appeared,  as  modulations  and  sequences,  to  use  the  words  invented 
by  biologists  of  Music. 

111.  And  he  looked  upon  his  work  and  saw  that  it  was  good.  But  whether  all  his  flesh 
would  come  to  grow  like  that  he  could  not  yet  be  sure.  We  grow  but  as  we  may,  not  always  as  we  will. 
But  he  did  not  really  care  much  how  he  should  grow  if  only  it  would  be  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  of  assist- 
ance in  the  freeing  of  the  people.  And  more  and  more  he  leaned  upon  his  brother  for  help  to  show  him 
the  way  to  accomplish  this  great  object. 

112.  In  certain  ways  he  was  himself  able  to  be  of  assistance  to  his  brother.  He  pointed  out 
to  Poetry  that  in  all  the  latter's  works  the  people  as  a  whole  had  never  been  the  hero  of  his  pieces— only 
individual  men,  women,  children,  animals,  plants,  etc.;  who,  in  spite  of  all  his  efforts  to  make  them  typi- 
cal of  other  members  of  the  race,  and  especially  of  all  mankind,  the  people  insisted  always  on  treating 
them  as  special  individuals  who  had  no  great  connection  with  themselves.  This  was  because  in  the 
pieces  of  the  god  Poetry,  the  author  was  compelled  to  describe  the  places  and  the  situations  in  the  midst 
of  which  his  heroes  lived;  and  these  places  and  situations,  being  always  at  least  a  little  different  to  the 
ones  in  which  most  of  the  people  lived,  they  thot  the  heroes'  acts  were  not  to  be  taken  as  models  for 
their  own.  Thus  the  efforts  of  the  god  to  influence  the  people  to  free  them  from  their  over-work  were 
neutralized,  and  sometimes  lost  entirely.  And  so  the  god  of  Music  prevailed  upon  the  other  to  make  a 
poem  in  which  the  people  as  a  whole  should  be  the  hero— promising  to  set  the  piece  to  music-   and  they  did. 

113.  He  could  not  make  up  his  mind  whether  to  go  on  with  the  opera  form  or  not.  His  mar- 
riage, he  thot,  had  not  been  over  successful,  and  whether  it  ever  could  be  happy  he  somewhat  doubted. 
But  he  experimented  with  operas,  too,  introducing  even  speech  with  music,  and  choosing  subjects  fre- 
quently as  far  away  as  Peru  and  South  Africa.  But  the  only  thotful  men  whom  he  could  get  to  help  him 
in  this  work  had  no  very  great  interest  in  the  struggle  of  the  people.    They  usually  insisted  on  selecting 

Copyright,  1917.  by  George  Edwards 


43 


poems  describing  the  difficulties  lovers  have  with  the  marriage  system,  and  ending  with  the  moral  that  the 
contract  of  the  priests  and  princes  in  matters  of  yearning  should  never  be  questioned ;  or  else  extolling 
the  value  of  the  local  government  (whichever  it  happened  to  be  in  which  the  thotful  man  resided),  thus 
influencing  the  people  to  think  they  were  already  saved  and  free.  It  was  astonishing  to  the  god  at  times 
to  see  how  easily  the  people  could  be  made  to  believe  they  were  already  free ;  even  when  the  shackles 
on  their  hands  and  feet  betrayed  their  wretched  condition  at  every  move.  This  method  of  the  opera 
writers  greatly  troubled  him,  and  only  occasionally  did  he  take  heart  at  the  thot  that  some  day  maybe 
thotful  women  might  take  up  this  form  of  creating  music ;  and  it  might  be  then,  he  said,  that  Ideas  of 
Freedom  would  be  chosen  as  the  subjects  of  their  pieces.  For  he  noted  with  great  pleasure  the  yearn- 
ing for  freedom  which  was  growing  up  among  the  women.  It  is  true  the  men  had  never  been  free,  but 
always  had  the  women  been  less  free  than  they. 

114.  From  these  reflections  upon  freedom,  he  soon  realized  that  the  people  for  the  most  part 
did  not  know  the  meaning  of  the  word.  There  had  been  endless  discussions  among  them  about  "the 
freedom  of  the  will",  but  he  knew  by  this  time  that  at  least  on  one  side  this  was  an  impossible  ideal. 
The  will,  like  everything  else,  is  formed  inevitably  by  the  past  experience  of  the  wilier.  The  only  place 
the  term  can  possibly  apply  is  in  the  forward  sense  the  freedom  of  this  inevitably-conditioned  will  to 
express  itself  in  material  products. 

115.  But  here  he  saw  again  that  the  slavery  of  the  people  meant  most  of  the  avenues  for  such 
material  expression  were  closed  to  the  people  by  the  "masters"  in  one  way  or  another,  with  the  result 
that  those  who  were  free  from  poverty  usually  did  not  know  how  to  will  with  the  greatest  possible  advan- 
tage. Furthermore,  as  most  of  the  people  had  less  than  enough  to  live  upon,  they  were  not  free  to  will 
at  all,  but  could  only  react  (like  the  machines  they  mostly  served)  to  the  most  compelling  necessity. 

116.  What  then  should  be  his  message,  the  subject  matter  of  his  next  pieces?  From  all  these 
observations  he  decided  that  the  greatest  problems  are  never  personal,  but  social.  He  declared  that  it 
was  remarkable  how  nobly  people  sometimes  act  under  the  influence  of  the  social  institutions  the 
churches,  laws,  customs  of  marriage,  and  above  all  the  system  of  private  monopoly  in  the  resources  of 
their  Mother  Earth.  That  what  individuals  do  should  be  solely  a  matter  of  taste  (tho  they  should  be  en- 
couraged to  form  as  "high"  a  taste  as  possible),  and  of  technical  control  of  the  common  environment. 
That  personal  acts  are  valuable  in  proportion  as  they  assist  the  scientific  and  artistic  control  of  environ- 
ment to  the  end  of  freeing  to  the  people  all  the  resources  of  the  earth,  and  the  use  of  them  in  accord- 
ance with  the  highest  taste.  He  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  social  institutions  were  all  grouped  un- 
der the  head  of  Special  Privilege,  and  consisted  of  all  the  materials  for  happy  living  which  are  held  out 
of  use  by  the  few,  while  the  many  die  for  lack  of  them.  That  all  the  laws  of  land,  labor,  and  of  many 
other  things  are  what  is  meant  by  Social  Sin. 

117.  But  how  to  influence  the  social  institutions?  "I  will  gain  as  much  publicity  as  I  can,"  he 
thot,  "The  people  love  me,  and  I  will  sing  wherever  I  may,  The  newspapers  (which  are  the  real  gov- 
ernment of  the  people,  censoring  facts ;  determining  the  people's  opinions,  and  therefore  their  acts),  shall 
give  me  daily  a  trifle  more  space.    I  will  ask  the  god  who  talks  to  help  me  there." 

118.  "But  how  to  convince  the  people  that  what  I  sing  to  them  is  best,  rather  than  what  the 
newspapers  give  them  ?"  For  a  long  time  he  studied  this  question",  and  at  last  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  given  sufficient  notoriety  to  become  familiar  to  the  people,  he  would  prove  to  them  that  he  had 
technical  control  not  only  of  the  materials  of  his  body,  but  of  the  facts  of  biology,  psychology,  sociology, 
and  other  sciences  as  well.  That  science,  when  true  to  its  mission,  is  to  know  the  people  for  the  pur- 
pose of  freeing  to  them  the  comforts,  beauty,  love;  in  short  the  whole,  of  life.    That  in  a  high  sense  art 


AA  r  3     c 

and  science  are  one ;  and  both  go  to  make  up  the  structure  of  the  gods. 

119.  Out  of  all  this  thot  appeared  one  day  a  standard  by  which  all  the  people  (and  the  gods 
themselves)  might  judge  the  value  of  any  pieces  offered  in  the  future  for  the  further  growth  of  the  gods: 
The  pieces  should  reveal  a  "perfect  balance"  of  the  factors  Truth,  Beauty,  and  Justice !  There  was  no 
apparent  leading  up  to  this  revelation.    It  simply  came.    And  then  he  preached  a  sermon. 

120.  "Truth,"  he  said,  "from  the  newly  won  social  point  of  view,  consists  not  merely  in  per- 
sonally 'telling  the  truth'.  In  a  society  whose  institutions  are  all  based  on  mistakes,  frequently  nothing 
could  be  more  fatal  to  the  individual.  The  truth  with  which  the  great  art-work  is  concerned  is  that 
which  conquers  the  superstitions  of  the  people  by  revealing  to  them  broadcast  the  liberating  facts  of  all 
the  sciences. 

121.  "Beauty  has  been  sufficiently  analyzed."  Here  he  smiled  a  knowing  smile,  for  he  was 
thinking  of  the  pleasure-theories  developed  in  the  Prince's  castle,  and  the  "perfect  harmony"  theories 
running  rampant  thru  the  newest  temples  of  them  all.  "But  one  point  here  I  mean  to  emphasize  more 
than  has  been  done  before.  That  is  the  large  and  growing  proportion  of  ugliness  entering  into  the  evo- 
lution of  esthetic  standards.  In  other  words,  pure,  or  simple  beauty  is  inconceivable  except,  perhaps,  to 
savages.  The  greater  the  cultivation  of  percipients,  the  larger  the  proportion  of  dissonance  is  required 
in  works  of  art  to  offset  the  feeling  of  obviousness  contained  in  unrelieved  standards  of  consonance.  In 
this  evolution  of  standards,  whether  in  the  race  or  in  the  individual,  a  point  is  reached  where  all  ugli- 
ness is  relatively  beautiful.  'No  object  is  so  foul,'  says  Emerson,  'that  intense  light  does  not  make  it 
fair'. "    The  people  crowded  closer  to  the  god. 

123.  "Justice,  finally,"  he  said,  "in  this  my  new  standard,  refers  not  merely  to  individuals 
tried  in  courts."  Here  his  eyes  flashed.  "It  is  rather  as  if  the  courts  themselves  were  tried.  I  doubt  if 
any  broader  image  of  justice  has  ever  been  made  than  Plato's :  of  society  being  'the  individual  writ  large ;' 
and  justice  obtaining  'when  the  members  can  perform  their  natural  function  in  relation  to  the  whole, 
iust  as  easily  and  unconsciously  as  do  the  organs  in  a  healthy  body.' "  At  this  point  he  raised  his  voice, 
speaking  very  slowly  to  the  end : 

124.  Truth,  beauty,  justice,  then,  these  three,  shall  be  my  standard  for  the  future  work  of  art." 
He  spoke  impressively,  and  all  the  people  raised  their  heads  as  they  beheld  the  vision  of  their  future 
freedom.  Then  suddenly  he  finished,  and  his  closing  words  were  in  the  rythm  of  a  teacher  whom  he 
had  studied  in  the  temples— "A  nd  the  greatest  of  these  is  justice  I" 

NOTES. 

(FOR  GROWN  UPS.) 


SYLLABUS    OF    A    PSYCHOLOGY    OF    MUSIC. 


110.*    Glyn :  Evolution  of  Musical  Form  :  Chap :  "Asiatic  Tonality. " 

112.    Edwards :  Melolog,  op.  15,  The  Mill.     (Ms.) 

116.    Puffer :  The  Psychology  of  Beauty :  Chap  ;  The  Beauty  of  Ideas. 

118.  Tolstoi :  What  is  Art? 

119.  The  valuation  of  ideas  is  the  highest  step  which  formal  psychology  has  taken,  and  with  the  step  it  joins  hands  with 
Philosophy.  What  ideas  are  most  worth  while*?  Are  ideas  that  seem  valuable  to  individuals  always  valuable  to  the  race  ?  Are 
those  prized  for  their  social  value  always  good  for  individuals  ?  These  are  some  of  the  questions  the  bewildering  subject  of  valu- 
ation raises.  My  own  conclusions  are  suggested  in  the  god's  meditation  and  closing  speech,  but  a  vast  literature  on  valuation 
(new  tho  the  subject  is)  has  already  arisen  to  which  the  student  may  refer  if  he  desires  a  different  conclusion.  Some  of  the 
leading  works  are  Anderson's  Social  Values,  Munsterberg's  The  Eternal  Values,  Urban's  Valuation  :  Its  Nature  and  Laws. 

123.    Plato :  The  Republic. 

♦Figures  refer  to  corresponding  paragraph  numbers  in  the  preceding  story. 


MUSIC 


OF 


GEORGE  EDWARDS 


Op.  1.-  PIANO  SOLO 

No.  4.  June  Night 

.50 

Op.  4.    SONGS 

No.  2.  A  Shepherd  of  Watteau 

.50 

No.  3.  Mignon's  Song 

.50 

No.  5.  Winter 

.50 

Op.  5—  VIOLIN  or  CELLO 

Sunrise  thru  the  Mists 

.75 

Op.  6.-MELOLOG 

Maymie's  Story  of  Red  Riding  Hood 

1.00 

Op.  8.    SONG 

The  Hurricane 

.75 

THE  WILLIS  MUSIC  COMPANY 

CINCINNATI 


YE  0146 


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